


Fate Dark Night

by DarknessStorm



Category: Fate/stay night & Related Fandoms, Fate/stay night - All Media Types
Genre: Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-02
Updated: 2021-02-20
Packaged: 2021-03-09 02:21:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 46,852
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27343471
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarknessStorm/pseuds/DarknessStorm
Summary: The Holy Grail War. A terrible event that killed hundreds of people when the Holy Grail was unleashed 10 years ago. And now a new Holy Grail War is beginning and this time, Rin Tohsaka will be participating. However, the Servant she managed to summon is quite unusual. Just who is this Dark Swordsman and what effect will he have on the war?A crossover between Fate: Stay/Night and my Dark Swordsman series. Not canon with the latter.
Relationships: Emiya Shirou/Artoria Pendragon | Saber, Matou Sakura/Original Character(s), Medusa | Rider/Original Character(s), Tohsaka Rin/Original Character(s)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 6





	1. The Servant in Black

What an unusual dream. Or maybe it would be better for Rin to call it a nightmare. What could have caused such a dream was unusual to her. Maybe it was because she had attempted to study a particular ritual in great detail before going to sleep. Or it could have come from her deep desire to summon the Saber Servant.

Rin was standing in a large, ruined city, one that was much bigger than Fuyuki City. The buildings were all of modern architecture and the damage between them was varied, with some of them either being slightly damaged with chunks missing to completely demolished. The sounds of people screaming in terror as they ran past the raven-haired girl filled her ears, along with the sounds of blades clashing and spells being fired in the distance.

In the far distance, by squinting her eyes, she could faintly see the Tokyo Tower as well as the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building. Those two landmarks were all she needed to confirm the city she was in. This was Tokyo, the capital city of Japan. But that just made Rin even more confused. She couldn't recall a time where Tokyo was in such a state during the modern era. The only time she could recall something was the aftermath of the last Holy Grail War, but that occurred in Fuyuki, not Tokyo. Just what was going on here?

" _Skreee_!"

Rin was immediately on guard as she heard the screech and examined her surroundings for potential attack. She reached into her pocket to pull out some of her gems only to grab empty air instead.

" _Damn it,"_ the girl thought in frustration. With no gems in her possession, Rin opted to ready a Gandr shot. Originally it was a magic intended to be a curse, Rin's version takes on an unusual corporeal form. Not only was it capable of punching through concrete with a single shot, but she doesn't even need to make any verbal components to initiate the spell thanks to the Magic Crest she inherited from her late father.

The screeching grew louder before a large object crashed in front of the young mage, creating a small explosion that rippled her hair. When the dust cleared, Rin found herself staring into the glowing red eyes of a colossal strange skeletal creature. Its skull was elongated, and its lower jaw was split in the middle and had humanoid teeth. It had tall spine with moving blade-shaped bones and a centipede-like body and curved tail. Finally, it had two long arms shaped like scythes.

Rin found herself in complete shock at the sight of the monster. She had never seen anything like it in the books she read. Was it a Demonic Beast that was never recorded in the history of mages?

The skeletal creature screeched at her again before charging at high-speed, its right scythe posed to strike. Acting on quick instinct, Rin channeled reinforcement magic into her legs before backflipping away, barely evading the monster's attack that would have cleaved her in two. Unfortunately, her red shirt did get a minor cut.

She wasn't given the opportunity to recover, much less counterattack, as the monster followed it up with a horizontal slash from its left scythe. The attack was moving too fast for her to evade, so Rin opted to reinforce her arms with magic to block the attack. It…sort of worked.

As if by some miracle, Rin's arms weren't chopped off upon the scythe's impact, instead they got decent-sized cuts that drew blood. It was very painful, but it was a much better alternative than losing her forearms entirely. However, the impact of the monster's attack also sent Rin crashing into the outer wall of a building before collapsing on the street, the blood from her arms wetting the pavement. It was difficult for her to breathe and she probably had internal injuries.

Despite this being a dream, everything in it all felt way to real to the young mage. She was starting to fear that she might actually die for real if this continued. Somehow Rin managed to get on her knees, but that was all she could except for staring at the skeletal monster that stood before her, ready to end her life as it did for many in this city.

Feeling desperate to survive, Rin pleaded, "Please. Someone, help me."

The Skull Reaper let out one final screech before bringing down its right scythe in an overhead swing. Rin could close her eyes and brace for the end. Suddenly a loud clash could be heard, but she felt nothing save for the stinging pain in her forearms.

Rin slowly opened her eyes and saw a young man dressed in black in front of her. He had hair as black as night, wore red fingerless gloves, a black leather twin-tailed overcoat with red trimming and red lines down the sleeves, black pants and boots. He was wielding two swords that looked nearly identical, with both of them being longswords with a wing-shaped hilt facing the handle. The sword in his right hand was jet black and seemed to exude shadows while the left one was gold and radiated a pure white light.

"Who…" was all she could say before the swordsman turned to her, revealing his bloodred eyes.

* * *

Rin awoke with a groan to the sound of her very persistent and "cheerful" alarm clock. She slowly curled out of her blanket and glared at the annoying device on her bedside.

"Shut up!" she shouted, but her tiredness made it sound more mellow than she intended. Instead she simply grabbed the clock and hurled it at a nearby chair, knocking the chair down. The alarm clock kept ringing as it rolled onto the floor.

"Oh, come on," Rin said in annoyance. "I was up late last night. Just a few more minutes." Unfortunately, the alarm clock continued its annoying ringing, prompting her to reluctantly roll out of bed and turn off the alarm. "Heartless jerk."

She then found herself thinking about that strange dream she had and quickly examined her arms. Luckily there wasn't even a scratch anywhere she could see, but she could still feel some phantom pain from what happened in her dream. Her thoughts then turned to the swordsman in black.

"Just who was he?" Rin spoke aloud.

A flash of purple light then appeared in the corner of her eye. Rin turned around and saw a strange black pendant just lying on the red carpeted floor. The chain itself was made of sterling silver but attached to it was a black wolf's head with two purple gems embedded as eyes.

"What the heck? Where did this come from?" the mage questioned as she picked up the pendant to examine it.

She could instantly tell that this item is special. There seemed to be a latent power hidden within it, especially in those gems. Rin has seen hundreds of gems that she acquired thanks to her family's fortune, but she's never seen gemstones like these two before. There was a certain…darkness dwelling within it. Also for some reason, this pendant reminded her of that swordsman from her dream.

"Could this be a catalyst to summon him?" Rin questioned to herself. She was already planning to summon her Servant tonight without a catalyst, largely because she lacked one, but now she felt more confidant that she can summon the Saber. Although, that raised the question on how this potential catalyst even got in her bedroom to begin with.

Realizing that she'd be late for school if she just stood there, Rin hurried through her usual morning routine inside her Western-style house, like cleaning herself up, eating breakfast, as well as dressing in her school uniform and signature red longcoat. Eventually she went up to a hall mirror to check if she had put her tie for her uniform on correctly, as well as the sides of her hair tied into twin tails. With a simple nod, Rin prepared to head for school when then…

"Crap. I forgot the pendant."

Rin hurried to the basement, which was where her magic workshop was located and retrieved a pendant with a red heart-shaped gem and silver chain, one of the few things her father had left for her. Even though _that_ hasn't started yet, Rin decided to bring it just in case as a precaution.

* * *

It didn't take long for Rin to feel uneasy as she walked to school.

" _That's weird. Why's it so quiet?"_ she thought to herself. _"There's not even a single student on the street."_

She soon arrived at the school courtyard, which was just as deserted as the streets outside. "Must be one of those days then."

"Hey, Tohsaka!" a girl cried out. "You're awfully early today."

Rin let out a sigh as she realized what had happened. "Oh, great," she muttered in annoyance as the girl from the vending machine approached her.

The student had short, chestnut hair, yellow-brown eyes, and instead of wearing a school uniform, she was wearing the white and black robes of the archery club uniform.

"Morning," the girl greeted. "It sure is cold today, huh?"

"Good morning, Mitzuzeri," Rin replied. "Do you know what time it is by any chance?"

Ayako Mitzuzeri tilted her head in confusion before saying, "Yeah, it's a little before 7 o'clock. Did you come early by mistake?" She then took a sip from her can of coffee.

"Seems that way," Rin answered. "It looks like all the clocks at my father's house were an hour faster, including my alarm clock, all by the same amount." She then muttered, "This all happened after I found that pendant in the basement. Could Father be behind this?"

She then noticed that Mitzuzeri was examining her pretty closely and leaning forward.

"Wake up, girl," the archery captain said.

Rin gave her a look and a simple poke on the forehead before saying, "Are you practicing this early again?"

"Yep. I lost one of our best members. I have to try to put up a good performance so new students will join our club."

"When you're team captain, it's always something, huh?"

"Hey, since you're here, why not watch our practice?"

Mitzuzeri led Rin to the archery dojo, however the mage found her thoughts focusing on the strange events that happened today. First, she had that strange dream, almost a nightmare, of that swordsman in black, then she found a mysterious black pendant by her bed that she knew for sure wasn't hers. Next there was the matter of all the clocks in her house adjusting themselves to an hour ahead and her father's will.

Rin then returned to reality as the archery captain retrieved her bow. The young mage politely declined the offer, much to Mitzuzeri's disappointment.

"Are you sure you don't want to watch?"

"I don't know a thing about archery," Rin admitted. "Thanks for the offer though."

As the raven-haired girl spoke, a slightly younger girl with purple hair entered the dojo. She was also wearing the school uniform as well as a magenta on the right side of her hair.

"Good morning, captain," the newcomer said as she bowed in respect.

"Good morning, Matou. I'm guessing you didn't have any luck with him?"

"No, ma'am. I'm sorry that I wasn't able to help."

"It's fine, don't worry about it," Mitzuzeri said with a warm smile. "If he doesn't want to do it then that's fine. We shouldn't try to force him to come back."

Since this seemed to be a private matter between the two club members, Rin decided to leave, saying goodbye to the two girls. However, when the purple-haired girl said her farewell, Rin looked a little pained.

"Work hard, Sakura," was all she said before leaving the dojo and began making her way towards the main school building.

However, as she began walking to the building a strange student with black hair and uniform walked past her. One striking feature was his bloodred eyes. Rin let out a gasp as she immediately turned around for a closer look, but she saw no one there. It was as if he was never there.

"Just great," she said in annoyance as she rubbed her eyes. "Thanks to that stupid alarm clock, I lost an hour of sleep and its causing me to hallucinate."

She was about to continue heading to the main building when suddenly a familiar voice said, "Good morning, Tohsaka! It must be my lucky day to run into you this early in the morning."

Rin let out a quiet groan in disgust, which her expression matched. Just her luck that she'd run into _him_ this early. Wanting to get this over with as quickly as possible, Rin put on a fake smile and looked over her shoulder. "Good morning, Shinji Matou. You're here early this morning."

"Of course I am," Shinji replied as he was leaning against one of the pillars outside the doors to the main school. "I'm the team captain, remember?" He was wearing his school uniform and his dark purple hair was curled to just above his ears.

"Vice-captain, you moron," Rin muttered while turning her head so Shinji wouldn't catch it. However, with how stuck-up Shinji was, he probably wouldn't have even noticed otherwise. Wanting to get away, Rin raised her hand and blithely said, "See you."

Clearly Shinji didn't expect that kind of answer as he reeled back in surprise before saying, "Wait. You should come watch our morning practice."

"I'll pass," Rin replied. "I don't want to get in the way of their _practicing_." She put more emphasis in the last word to see if Shinji would catch on that he had to be in the dojo to do any practicing, however it flew right over his head.

"No one will mind," Shinji argued.

"You aren't listening. I said I'll pass." Rin was getting irritated and dropped the false friendliness since it wasn't working on getting Shinji to stand down. "Besides, I'm not even interested in archery."

"Really?" Shinji said with interest as he held his chin. "I thought you were. Guess I had the wrong idea. I thought you kept coming to watch the after-school practices because you were interested."

Shinji then moved into Rin's field of view, blocking her way into the school. He took a few steps closer, invading her personal space, however Rin jerked her arm away from him when his hand got too close and turned her gaze away from him.

"Oh. Does that mean you were for something else," Shinji continued smugly, making Rin more and more agitated. "Like maybe watching me?"

Rin took a breath and regained her composure before facing the archery vice-captain again. "Stay away from me, will you?" she said coldly. "Let me be clear, Matou. Not only am I not interested in archery, I'm not interested in you. The fact is that I only just now realized that you were on the archery range, and I'm certain I won't notice you in the future."

"What did you say?!" Shinji shouted, his voice echoing into the locker room behind them. "How dare you, Tohsaka?!"

"You're welcome to be self-conscious, but you should tone it down," Rin continued as he walked past the enraged Matou."

As she changed into her inside shoes, Rin felt a breeze brush past her. The mage turned in the direction the wind was blowing towards and nearly gasped at what she saw. Just at the main entrance of the school was a young man with black hair wearing a black school uniform. He seemed to be glaring at Shinji, who was heading back to the archery range in frustration. However, the students who were coming in didn't seem to notice him at all.

Rin then felt something heat up in her coat pocket, prompting her to reach in and pull the item out. It was the wolf pendant that she had found earlier today. For the briefest of seconds, the gems in the pendant flashed with purple light.

"What the?" Rin muttered to herself. She looked back at the main entrance, only to see that the young man was gone.

" _That's the second time I've seen that boy today. Just what is going on with me?"_

Seeing how she wasn't going to get any answers at the moment, Rin returned the pendant to her pocket before climbing up the stairs, where she exchanged a greeting with the energetic English teacher, Miss Fujimora. However, when she reached the second floor, she ended up seeing another familiar face.

Standing outside a room was a boy with swept back, black hair and wore glasses. He seemed to sense her presence as he turned around to face her and jolted back slightly in surprise.

"T-Tohsaka."

"Well, well," Rin said calmly. "Does one of the duties of the Student Council president include patrolling the campus this early in the morning?" She then rested one hand on her waist as she reached him. "Or are you making maintenance rounds of the club rooms? Not that I care either way. Still, you're the diligent student as always."

Issei Ryuudou regained the composure he had before and folded his arms as he eyed the mage in suspicion.

"And what do you have up your sleeve?" Issei questioned. "Why are you here so early when you aren't in any clubs?"

"I just felt like it," Rin said in a cavalier tone, causing Issei to grimace.

This was pretty much the standard when it came to Rin's interactions with Issei. For some reason, he was always suspicious of her and kept his guard up whenever she was around him. Since he clearly wasn't going to change his opinion of her, Rin had decided to mess around with him as much as possible. She would never be disrespectful, but she found his reactions to be quite entertaining.

Issei was about to respond when the door to the room he was standing in front of opened and another student stepped out, carrying one of the space heaters the school used during the winter months.

"I fixed it, Issei," the boy said.

"Oh, sorry," Issei said as he turned and abandoned his irritation. He lifted his hand in a polite gesture and bent forward to speak to the student. "I asked you for help, but you did it all, Emiya. My bad."

Rin raised an eyebrow in some interest. Everyone who attended Homurahara High School knew who Shirou Emiya was. It was very well known that he was very helpful. If anyone needed something fixed or an extra pair of hands for something on the school grounds, he was the first person they would ask.

Shirou was of average height and had messy red-orange hair and golden-brown eyes. Just by his physical appearance, he didn't look a person to have that sort of reputation.

"It's fine," Shirou replied. "Where's the next one? We don't have a lot of time."

Rin let out a sigh as the two boys began discussing the other broken heaters and equipment. She then began making her way past them and towards her classroom, but not before sparing a quick glance at Shirou as she walked by.

"You're here early, Tohsaka," Shirou said as she walked down the hall.

She glanced back to see the boys go back into the room with the heater.

"Was that his way of saying hello?"

She quickly dismissed the thought and went about her day, mentally preparing for tonight. It was time for her to summon her Servant. There were only two spots left so she had to act quickly.

* * *

**That Evening**

When Rin arrived at her home, she noticed that the voicemail button on her phone was blinking. Her eyes narrowed, having an idea on who it could be, but pressed the button anyway. The phone said that she had one new message that was recorded on January 31st at 3:21 pm.

"Rin, it's me," Kirei Kotomine had said. "As I'm sure you are aware, tomorrow is the deadline. I insist that you start taking this seriously. Only two slots remain, the Archer and Saber classes. The ranks of the Masters must be filled without delay. Summon your Servant and establish your Command Seals immediately. Of course, if you are not participating in the Holy Grail War, that is a different matter. If you value your life, seek shelter with the Church—" Rin then stopped the recording.

"I know what I have to do," Rin said in annoyance. "You don't have to tell me."

She changed into a red blouse, black skirt and black stockings before spending the next several hours preparing for the summoning the summoning ritual. Once it was nighttime and the hour was near, Rin shoved books and materials out of the way and pushed the stone worktable that was in the center of the workshop aside to reveal a ritual circle underneath.

"Preparations, ready," she said firmly before checking the clock. "Time, good. Wavelength, ideal." She then pulled out the black pendant and set it on the floor. "Catalyst, set. By performing the summoning ritual at 2 am, when my mana is at its peak, I should be able to summon Saber."

There are two ways for a Master to summon a Servant for the Holy Grail War. The more traditional way was for a Master to perform the summoning ritual while incorporating an object, known as a catalyst, that was central or important to the Heroic Spirit the Master wished to summon. The object could be a piece of armor or a part of their weapon, anything could work as long as it had a significant connection to the spirit in question.

The second option was riskier. A catalyst wasn't required for a Master to summon a Servant. If the master didn't have a catalyst, then the ritual would use the mage themselves as the focus. The ritual would analyze the mage and search for a Servant that could resonate with them and potentially fill in missing slots. While in theory, this could allow a Master to summon a Servant they can get along with, they were essentially going in blind, not knowing who they going to get. Luckily for Rin, now that she had a catalyst of her own, she didn't have to worry about that.

Rin pulled out a handful of gems. They were filled a large potential magical energy and could be used to pull off impressive feats, but only if the mage knew what they were doing.

"For the elements: silver and iron. The foundation: stone and the archduke of pacts. And, for my great master Shvinorg." The gems in her right hand melted and began splashing into the circle. The liquid glowed with a blue-green light and began to move on its own, filling in the red lines the ritual spell. "Close the gates of the cardinal directions. Come forth from the Crown, and follow the forked road leading to the Kingdom." The circle was now completely illuminated from the light created from Rin's gems. More liquid leaked out of the mage's closed hand, the drips causing the light to ripple and increase in intensity as she continued the incantation. The black pendant also began glowing, but it was releasing purple light instead. "Fill. Fill. Fill. Fill. Fill. Repeat five times. But when each is filled, destroy it." Now the entire ritual circle was glowing purple. "Set."

"Heed my words. My will creates your body, and your sword creates my destiny. If you heed the Grail's call and obey my will and reason, then answer me. I hereby swear that I shall be all the good in the world. That I shall defeat all the evil in the world." The circle's light was growing more intense by the second, with ripples of power from the spell flowing around her, creating sparks that resembled the stars of the night sky. "You seven heavens, clad in the three great words of power, come forth from the circle of binding, Guardian of the Scales!" The spell coalesced into a circle of crackling purple before letting out a gust of wind that scattered any loose paper into the corners of the room.

The smoke soon cleared, and Rin found herself on her knees. She felt tired but was also filled with ecstatic energy at the same time. She looked at her right hand and laughed in victory. On the back of her right hand were now the crimson symbols of Command Seals, marking her as one of the seven Masters for the 5th Holy Grail War.

"That was flawless! I know I drew the most powerful card!"

Rin looked around in excitement to see who she summoned, only to see that she was alone. Before she even had a chance to process this, a loud crash could be heard from above.

"Why?!" Rin shouted as she bolted up the stairs.

It didn't take her long to reach the living room, which was where the sound came from. Unfortunately because of the crash, the door was stuck.

"Stupid door! Damn it!" she cried out before kicking the door out of its frame and nearly stumbled into the room.

The living room was a mess as the furniture was scattered everywhere, either having been blasted away or were partially crushed by the figure sitting on it almost like a throne, with his head leaning on his right hand.

The figure was a young man, about eighteen years old however he had a presence of someone much older. He had hair as black as night, wore red fingerless gloves, a black leather twin-tailed overcoat with red trimming and red lines down the sleeves, black pants and boots. He opened his eyes, revealing them to be bloodred, and gazed at the mage. His face was passive, as if he was trying to analyze her.

There was no doubt about it. This was the person Rin saw in her dream. She actually managed to summon him! But why did he appear in the living room instead of her workshop? Rin glanced at the grandfather clock, which was partially leaning behind the young man, and realized what had happened.

" _Wait, all the clocks were running an hour early when I got up this morning. Which means it's actually 1 am, not 2 am."_

"Damn it. I did it again!" she proclaimed in frustration, pulling on her hair. "What's done is done." She then dropped to her knees. "Why did you task me with this, Father?" Rin grunted in annoyance before turning to face the stranger. "Oh, all right. What are you?"

"So that's going to be your first words to me?" the figure said passively. "Looks like I've been given an interesting Master."

Rin stood back up and approached the Servant with caution. "Just to be perfectly clear, whoever you are, you are my Servant, correct?"

The Servant simply shrugged. "Possibly," he said slowly as he eyed her in suspicion. "You weren't present when I was summoned."

"Good grief. You aren't a baby bird," Rin chastised. "Don't joke and make it sound like you imprint on your Master when you first open your eyes." She let out a sigh in exhaustion. "Just answer my question. You are _my_ Servant, and no one else's, correct? Master/Servant relations should be clearly laid out right off the bat."

The Servant let out an amused chuckle as he formed a faint smile. "Interesting mindset. One that I agree with. However, do you have proof that you aren't an imposter?"

"Of course," Rin replied, presenting her Command Seals and the black pendant to the young man. "I used this pendant to summon you and these Command Seals are proof that I am your Master."

The male teen's eyes widened in surprise as he saw the pendant. "Where did you get that?" he questioned in disbelief.

Rin was surprised by the question and struggled to find an answer as she still didn't know how she came into possession of it. However, even if the Servant thought she stole it from someone else, her Command Seals would keep him from harming her.

"I found it by my bedside this morning," Rin answered honestly, wanting to test his reaction. "I don't know how it got there."

The Servant was silent for a few moments as he processed what she said. After determining that there was no malice or deceit in her words, he finally said, "Very well. I will acknowledge you as my Master."

"Really?" Rin said eagerly. "You'll fight beside me?"

He stood up and adjusted his coat collar. "Yes. I guess now is the time for introductions. My name is Marth Umbris and it seems that I am the Archer."

Now Rin was shocked. She could have sworn that her Servant would be summoned as the Saber based on what she saw of him in her dream.

"Wait, you're _not_ the Saber?!" the mage questioned loudly.

Marth let out a disappointed sigh as he rested his right hand on his waist. "Unfortunately, not," he said in defeat, his eyes filled with sympathy. "Believe me, I'm just as surprised as you. I'm a swordsman, and yet I was summoned into the Archer class to fight in some war. I'm sorry to disappoint you."

The young mage let out a deep breath to calm herself. "No, the fault is mine. I messed up the time for your summoning and now we're both paying for it. Nothing to do about it now. Anyway, I'm Rin Tohsaka. It's a pleasure to meet you." She extended her hand to her Servant in a gesture of companionship.

The Archer simply smiled back. "The pleasure's all mine, Rin," Marth answered back as he accepted her hand. "I look forward to seeing where this partnership will lead us."

**To be continued**

* * *

**I wanted to continue this chapter a little bit more, but I felt like this was a good stopping point. Anyway, welcome to my new story, Fate Dark Night! I've always wanted to do a Fate fanfic but I was always focused on other projects. For those who haven't read my SAO stories or Accel World The Black Wolf, Marth is an OC that I created and is one of the main characters of them. For those who have read them, I bet you were surprised to see him being summoned into the Archer class, rather than Saber or Caster. I could have made him the Saber and have Shirou summon him, but I wanted to put Artoria in and I can't do that if Marth is his Servant. As for Caster, then I'd have to pick a new Archer Servant and potential Master since there's no way anyone other than Rin can summon EMIYA and I wasn't sure if I could pull it off. This does mean that the Shirou vs EMIYA fight will not happen here. This story will mostly be a mix of the Fate route, UBW route, and some original plot points. Also at the time of posting this chapter, I've only seen the first two Heaven's Feel movies and don't know how I can incorporate that route into this story and it keep it in the way I want it to go. This may change as I continue writing this as I am a fan of Medusa.**

**Anyway that's all I wanted to say at the moment. I'll see you guys next time!**


	2. The First Battle

Marth was quite surprised that he of all people was summoned as a Heroic Spirit to fight in this Holy Grail War. He never once considered himself to be a hero, in fact he hated being called one as it reminded him of all the people he failed while fighting alongside his partner in that floating castle in a far-off world. It was in that castle where he got the title that he had forsaken for years until he finally accepted it as a part of him. The Dark Swordsman, one of the heroes of Aincrad.

_"Except I'm not exactly a swordsman right now,"_ Marth thought, chuckling at the irony. _"Just what have I gotten myself into?"_

The Archer had seen much in his long life, but nothing quite like this. After having fought in so many battles, suffering all the way, he thought that he would finally catch a break, but as usual, fate has other plans for him.

Kirito, his best friend and longtime partner, wasn't here with him either, and the Archer didn't know if the Black Swordsman will show up at all. This likely meant that Marth was on his own this time. Well… not exactly.

"So, Archer," Rin spoke up. They had moved to what was her father's study. The room was large and had a floor-to-ceiling window as a wall behind the desk. A low table sat perpendicular to the desk, with a pair of couches and side tables on either side. There was a massive bookshelf on the opposite side of the room, along with a stairway that led to the upper section, which had even more bookshelves.

Rin was sitting on one of the couches while her Servant was simply standing as he examined the room. "Just who exactly are you?" she continued. "I've never heard of a Heroic Spirit with your name before. I need to know how powerful you are so I can work out a strategy. Can you tell me more about yourself?"

Marth gazed at his Master with an impassive face, debating on what he should do. He then let out a sigh in defeat as he saw no point in hiding his past before taking a seat in the opposite couch. "I understand," he replied. "I have to warn you though, my story's not exactly a happy one. But before I start, is this room safe for me to reveal anything? From what I gather, a Servant revealing information about themselves is dangerous."

"Yes," Rin said with a nod. "This room has wards that keep eavesdroppers out. But if that's not enough, you can just give me a basic summary of your life."

The Archer nodded in acknowledgement and began telling the mage about his life, but only in short summaries. First, he talked about how he lost his birth parents at the age of ten when they were on a family vacation in Tokyo and how he and his sister were then adopted by a Japanese couple. He talked about how he met Kirito, who would become his greatest friend and how they—along with ten thousand other people—got trapped in the death game that was Sword Art Online. Marth gave a brief summary of what he experienced in that virtual world, before moving on to his adventures in the land of fairies that was Alfheim Online and the cyber game of Gun Gale Online.

Next was the Demon War, where False Demon King Zarc summoned hordes of monsters from the virtual world in order to destroy Tokyo to get revenge on Marth, who had defeated his master on the mysterious Temporal Island. The war ended in Zarc's defeat, but Tokyo was nearly destroyed from their battle. Following the aftermath, Marth had ended up sending himself twenty years into the future by accident, leading to him and his friends having to battle in an accelerated world.

When he was done, Rin was rendered speechless. From what he had said, Rin gathered that Marth was from the present, or potentially the near-future, but she had no recollection of any of the events he had talked about, mainly the SAO and Demon War parts. It raised the question on where exactly her Servant had come from.

"Wow, that's…hard to believe," Rin finally said. "To my knowledge, there have never been these 'VRMMOs' or this Demon War. How strange."

Surprisingly, Marth didn't look shocked in the slightest. "I figured as much," he said as he rested his head on his hand. "This world feels very different from mine. For example, I can feel a great flow of mana in this city. Mana doesn't exist where I'm from, at least on my Earth. This means that you and I are from different worlds."

Once again, Rin was shocked. "Different worlds? Is such a thing possible?"

"Yep. I've even been to a few of them myself."

Rin pursed her lips. "I see." Despite how crazy it was, Marth's explanation did explain why she had never heard of him or his story before today. Because he was from another world. And if his story was to be believed, then there were multiple different worlds, all with their own history. On the bright side, that meant that it was very likely that the other Masters and Servants won't be able to identify him once the Holy Grail War begins.

"If what you say is indeed true, how much do you know about the Holy Grail War?" she asked. It was common knowledge among mages that whenever a Heroic Spirit was summoned as a Servant, they would automatically be implanted with knowledge on the current society so that they can blend in as well as the rules of the Holy Grail War. She needed to know if the same applied to her own Servant.

"I know about the different classes and that we Servants are summoned by you Masters to fight for the Holy Grail, a relic that can supposedly grant any wish," Marth explained. "I also know that Servants need Masters to stay anchored to this world by using the Masters' mana otherwise they'll fade away once their mana supply fully depletes. Speaking of which, the mana I'm receiving from you is pretty good. I'm guessing you're a first-rate mage."

Rin smiled with pride at her Servant's compliment. "Yep. I've been training in magecraft ever since I was a little girl," she replied. "I'm still disappointed that I wasn't able to summon you as the Saber. Based on what you told me about yourself, are you going to have a hard time fighting as the Archer?"

"I can manage," Marth said casually. "I think I have an idea on how I ended up in this class. If I'm right, then things should be relatively alright."

"I see. Is there anything I should know? What about your Noble Phantasm?"

The Dark Swordsman paused to think before answering, "I feel like I said enough about my past. As for my Noble Phantasm, let's just say that they involve my memories. I'll reveal them on my own time."

Rin, although curious about what her Servant's Noble Phantasm was, decided to respect his wishes and nodded her head. She also had the suspicion that he was hiding something else about his past. "Okay. I think that's enough with our discussion," she said. "Now it's time for your first job."

Marth raised an eyebrow in interest. "Okay. What do you want me to do?" His instincts then kicked in as he caught a broom and dustpan, which confused him.

"Clean the living room. You made that mess, so I expect it you to make it spotless."

The Archer reeled back in surprise. "Seriously," he complained. "I'm a fighter, not a cleaner. I may be new to the whole Servant thing, but I don't think this is what we're intended to do."

"Servants are familiars. Except they have a tendency to talk back and can be quite unruly."

For some reason, the mage reminded Marth of a certain girl very dear to him. One of the few people he ever fully opened up too. He let out an amused chuckle at that. "I see. I did make that mess after all, so I guess it makes sense that I clean it up. I'll see you later, Rin."

He then left to go do his task without another word.

_"That Marth sure is an interesting person,"_ Rin thought to herself as she headed to her room to sleep. _"But who exactly is he? What is he?"_

As soon as she entered her room, she changed into her yellow nightgown and crawled into bed. "Father," Rin muttered to herself. "The battle I've been waiting for ten years is about to begin. My Holy Grail War…"

She then fell asleep, prompting Marth to quietly enter her room and retrieve the black pendant before returning to the living room. After that, he began examining the catalyst that was used to summon him in his right hand.

"Just how did you end up here?" Marth muttered in bewilderment while sitting on his "throne". He could tell that the pendant was the genuine article as he wouldn't have been summoned if it was a replica. The eyes of the wolf, which were made from shards of the Shadow Crystal, simply stared blankly at its owner. He reached under his shirt with his other hand and sure enough, he couldn't find his pendant around his neck.

Marth let out a sigh as he pocketed his pendant and stood up. He'll worry about this later. Right now, he needed to get this room cleaned before his Master wakes up.

* * *

**The Next Morning**

Rin woke up to see that her alarm clock read 9:05. "This is way beyond running late," she said slowly. "I guess I'll just skip school today." She then lowered her gaze to examine her Command Seals. "Right, it was Archer I summoned, not Saber. And he comes with a very bizarre story too. I've got a headache all of a sudden."

It took a lot longer for Rin to get out of bed than it did yesterday as her body really didn't want to move. Despite how much she had slept, she still felt really sluggish as she slowly went down the stairs. It would seem that the summoning ritual she performed last night had taken more of her mana than she initially thought.

After a few minutes of standing, Rin continued heading down and entered the living room, only to see it spotless and everything fully repaired. Even the door that she had kicked down was back in its frame and functioned perfectly. "Wow. Looks like he has uses other than fighting."

"You're up late," Archer said as he entered the room from another door. He was carrying a tea set on a serving tray. His outfit had changed as well. He was now wearing a black overcoat with a futuristic silver chestplate on his upper torso and collar along gold and silver trimming on the sleeves, silver fingerless gloves, a black undershirt and pants, a silver belt that had a holder for a small gun, and gold and black boots. "I figured summoning me would have taken a big toll on you, but I didn't expect you to sleep this long. Do you normally sleep this long?"

Rin didn't answer as she sat down while her Servant poured her a cup of tea. She then took a sip and was surprised by the taste. "Delicious. You know how to make tea?"

Marth let out a chuckle. "When you've lived as long as I have, you pick up a few things," he replied. "Tea's actually one of the things I'm really good at making."

"I see. By the way, what's with the wardrobe change?"

Marth was confused for a few seconds before he realized what she was talking about. "Oh this?" he said as he looked himself over. "It happened during the night as I was cleaning. Apparently because of your botched summoning ritual, I was summoned in my Saber appearance instead of my Archer one, despite not being in the Saber class. So, the Holy Grail had to correct that mistake. This is what I'm supposed to look like while I'm in this class."

Rin raised an eyebrow in confusion. "Is the Holy Grail that petty that it'll change your appearance if you're not in the right class for it?" she questioned.

Marth simply shrugged. "Beats me. I'm just glad my hair didn't change."

"What's the issue with that?"

The Servant looked away sheepishly. "Let's just say that my original GGO form looked a little…feminine despite being a male avatar."

Rin nearly spat out her tea in surprise before bursting out laughing. "Are you serious? Show me!"

"No way," Marth said in a huff as he folded his arms. "I may be your Servant, but there are some orders I won't obey."

Rin sighed in disappointment before drinking more of her tea. She could use one of her Command Seals to force her Servant to obey her order, but it would be a waste to use it on something so minor. Besides, trust was a key requirement for a Master and Servant. Without trust, neither of them will get very far in the Holy Grail War.

"Very well. Then I want you to get ready to go out, Archer. I'm going to show you around the city."

"Alright. Since we're going to be battling here, it would be a good idea to know the lay of the land." He then opened one eyelid and smirked mischievously. "But shouldn't you get dressed first, unless you plan to go out in your nightgown."

Rin's face immediately went red, either out of anger or embarrassment, it was hard to tell which. "ARCHER!" Meanwhile Marth was laughing heartily at his Master's reaction as he effortlessly dodged a Gandr shot aimed at his head.

Yep, even after so long, Marth still had his teasing side with him. He had a feeling he was gonna enjoy his time here.

* * *

Rin spent most of the day showing her Servant, who was in astral form to conserve mana, around the city of Fuyuki. While she was doing this for battle purposes, she couldn't deny that it was kind of fun to do. As day became night, Rin arrived at the roof on one of the tallest buildings in the city, giving her a clear view of everything around her under the night sky.

"What do think, Archer?" Rin asked curiously as she gazed at the city below. "Doesn't this place have a great view of the city?"

"Yeah," Marth replied as he materialized while sitting on a vent. "You can see practically everything from here."

"I heard that Servants of the Archer class have incredible eyesight. Is that true?"

"Yep. It would be hard to shoot something far away without having excellent eyesight. For example, from up here, I can make out every tile on that bridge."

Rin looked to where Marth was pointing and faintly saw a red bridge far in the distance.

"Wow, that's impressive," she praised. "The Archer class really is made up of archers."

Marth gave his Master a flat look. "Is that supposed to be a compliment or an insult?"

"A compliment." Rin then found herself looking down, away from the building where she could see a figure on a walk bridge looking up at the roof. "It's him. I know it."

"Huh?" Marth said in confusion before gazing at where Rin was focusing on. "Is he an enemy or something?"

"No. Just an acquaintance," she replied as she walked away from the edge of the rood. "An ordinary person who has nothing to do with this."

The Dark Swordsman paused for a moment as a sudden thought popped in his mind. "By the way, I've been meaning to ask you something."

"What is it?" Rin said curiously.

"Were you trained at a young age to be a Master? And did you go along with that?"

"That's right," she confirmed. "For generations, winning the Grail has been the Tohsaka dream."

"Then I assume you have a wish you want granted. Do you mind telling me what it is?"

However, what Rin said next surprised the Archer.

"I don't have a wish."

"What?" Marth said in moderate shock as he rose to his feet. "That doesn't seem possible. From what I gather, the Holy Grail is an omnipotent cup that can grant any wish. If you don't have a wish, then why are you fighting in this war?"

"Because there's a battle to be fought and won, Archer," she said confidently.

"What? Then you're just…"

"Fighting to win," she finished.

Marth let out a deep sigh as he pinched the bridge of his nose. "That has got to be the stupidest reason to fight in a war that I've ever heard."

"What?" Rin asked in shock.

The Dark Swordsman locked eyes with the mage, his gaze making her blood run cold. "It's clear that you've never been in a real battle before. Wars aren't games. They're chaotic, destructive, ugly. You never know who's going to survive." He then rose to his feet. "Just to be clear, I'll still obey you in battle, but don't _ever_ think that this is a game. It's not. There are very real dangers here, ones that can threaten your life. Remember that."

Rin was surprised by the scolding her Servant had given her, but then she remembered that older presence she sensed from him the night they first met and the summarized version of his story that he told her. Marth had seen the ugly side of war and seen many people die in front of him. Just how old was he? She found herself struggling to find what to say.

"Let's go home," the mage finally said. Marth simply nodded and dematerialized before they began heading back.

* * *

Rin was heading back to her house when she noticed that she was nearing the Matou house. Normally she'd be fine walking past it, but there was someone outside that she didn't want to run into. The mage quickly hurried out from under the streetlight and hid behind the elevated street, barely keeping her head up so she can see.

_Any reason why your hiding?_ Marth questioned, staying in his astral form.

"It's someone I know," Rin muttered. "I skipped school today, so I don't want to run into anyone."

_Wouldn't have happened if you hadn't overslept._

She had to suppress the urge to groan. "It's not my fault the clocks in my house are messed up," she argued back, keeping her voice low. Rin then turned her focus on Sakura, who seemed to be talking with a blonde-haired man wearing designer clothing, which consisted of a black jacket, a white button-down shirt, and black pants and shoes. Unfortunately, they were too far away for her to hear what they were talking about.

After a few moments, the man began walking away, signaling that their conversation was over. He passed by where Rin was hiding, giving the mage a brief chance to get a good luck at him. He definitely didn't look Japanese, meaning he was most likely a foreigner. But that still didn't explain why he was talking to Sakura. Was he just asking for directions or was it something else? The man then disappeared into the night. After a few minutes, Sakura finally went into the Matou house, allowing Rin to continue onward.

* * *

**The Next Day**

Marth, in his physical form, was sitting at the edge of his Master's bed, watching her sleep. She looked rather peaceful like this, much different from her loud and shrewd personality. As usual, Rin's alarm clock was way off and not likely to ring on time again, so Marth opted to help her get up. However, that didn't mean he couldn't have some fun with it.

Archer stretched his right hand to have it above Rin's head, his fingers spread apart. "Generate Aqueous Element," he chanted, prompting three orbs of blue light to appear on the tips of his fingers. Since he wasn't in the Caster class, most of Marth's high-level spells were locked away, but he could still use the basic and medium level ones. This spell was a Sacred Art, a technique he had learned in the virtual world that simulated real world so well, it was practically an alternate reality. "Discharge."

The blue lights fell off of his fingers and as they fell, they turned into small orbs of water. They quickly hit Rin's face, prompting her to immediately wake up with a scream.

"Eeeee!" she shrieked before glaring daggers at her Servant, who was laughing like crazy. She grabbed her pillow and began smacking him with it, which only made Marth laugh harder. "Why did you do that, Archer?!"

After a few moments, Marth stood up and stopped laughing. "Your alarm's off again so I decided to wake you up instead," he answered with an amused smirk. "Just because you're participating in a secret war doesn't mean you can skip school."

Rin let out a groan as she held her forehead in her right hand. "Are you going to do this every day?" she questioned in annoyance.

"Yep. Now you might want to get dressed. You don't want to be late."

Rin watched as the Archer exited the room. She was still a little peeved by his little wake-up trick but was a somewhat grateful that he did care enough about her school life to do so. Of course, she would never admit this to him. Rin slowly crawled out of bed and spent the early morning getting ready for school. After finishing breakfast, Rin grabbed her schoolbag and prepared to head out. However, as she walked down the hall to the front door, her eyes lowered to the home phone there.

After a few minutes of staring at it, Rin decided to bite the bullet and call the person she really didn't want to talk to. The fake priest and overseer of the Holy Grail War, Kirei Kotomine. She quickly dialed the number and brought the phone to her ear. It didn't take long for the overseer to answer.

"Kirei, it's me," Rin said as Marth leaned on the wall opposite of her, his arms folded over his chest. "I made a pact with Archer two nights ago, so please list me officially as a Master."

"Very well," Kirei replied emotionlessly. "Then, what are your plans? Would you care to stop by? I have something for you that your parents left in my care."

"You mean Father's will? I already deciphered it and found what he left, so that's fine. I'll stop by if I'm ever in the mood, so I'll see you then." Rin then hung up before Kirei could even say anything else.

"So you lost your parents too?" Marth said suddenly, sounding sympathetic. "What happened to them?"

Rin turned her gaze to her Servant before looking away. "Not now. I'll tell you another time," she passed off, silently hoping that he won't bring this topic up again.

Marth was silent but nodded in understanding. He knew what it was like to lose his parents and that affected him drastically. He wondered how it affected Rin.

The duo then headed out of the house, with Archer going into his astral form, and began making their way to school.

_Just to cover all bases, it is safe for you to go to school, right?_ Marth questioned.

"Of course. We avoid battles with other Masters while in public, so the school should be safe. It's very unlikely that someone would try a sneak attack there."

_And if there's another Master there that's stupid enough to try that?_

"That won't happen," Rin answered. "There's only one mage family in this city besides the Tohsakas. That family is a shadow of its former self. They could never produce a Master."

_So there_ is _another mage at your school, but you feel like they don't meet the qualifications to become a Master,_ Marth said inquisitively.

"Exactly."

_I can understand your mindset, but you still shouldn't lower your guard,_ the Servant advised. _From my experience, whenever someone lacks the necessary power to do something, they usually find alternative ways to do it. Besides, there's also the possibility that there are mages at your school that you don't know about._

Rin didn't answer as she stepped onto campus. However, as soon as she set foot onto the school grounds, something felt _wrong_ and her vision briefly turned purple. She ended up stopping dead in her tracks.

_Like I said, alternate ways,_ Marth said.

The mage wanted to chide her Servant, but chose to hurry inside the school to change her shoes and find a private spot to talk to him. She found such a spot in the bottom of an empty stairway. This particular area was deserted so there was no risk of a student or teacher overhearing.

"This is more than just stale air," Rin said in a serious tone, her arms folded across her chest. "Has a magical barrier already been established?"

Marth was silent for a moment as he sensed that there was indeed a barrier around the school. _Not fully,_ he replied in a grim tone. _But I can tell that preparations seem to be underway. Talk about bold. Either this person is a heavy hitter…_

"Or a complete novice," the raven-haired Master finished. "If a bounded field can be sensed by others, that's a third-rate hack. A first-rate mage stays hidden until they're ready to strike."

_I see. What's the plan?_

"I don't give a damn whether this person's a first rate or third-rate," she said bitterly. "Whoever started to put up this crude garbage in my territory gets taken out. After school, we'll start by examining the barrier. Let's decide on whether to remove or leave it once we determine what kind of field it is."

Marth was about to voice his agreement with his Master's idea when suddenly they heard the sound of multiple papers being dropped, prompting the female mage to turn around and see that they were no longer alone. Right at the foot of the stairs was none other than Sakura, who trying to pick up her fallen papers. Quietly telling her Servant that they'll continue this conversation later, Rin went over to her fellow student.

"Let me help with that, Sakura," Rin offered as she got on her knees and began helping the other girl gather her papers.

"Oh, Miss Tohsaka," Sakura said in surprise before smiling. "Thank you."

"It's no problem. So, are you taking these to your class?"

"No, to Mr. Kuzuki," the purple-haired girl answered. "He said there was a typo, so he was taking them all back."

"Mr. Kuzuki is quite the perfectionist, all right," Rin said simply.

Suddenly Rin fell silent as she noticed a faint mark on Sakura's hand. Sakura did the same when she noticed the raven-haired girl's Command Seals. For the just the briefest of seconds, the Matou looked very surprised. Neither of them said anything, however Rin decided to make a mental note on keeping a closer eye on Sakura.

* * *

**That night**

Rin and her Servant, who was still in his astral form, were on the roof of the school. When classes had ended, the duo had spent the rest of the day searching the campus grounds and found several sigils scattered and hidden. The one that they found on the roof was the seventh one.

"This one seems to be the trigger point," Rin voiced aloud as she was on her knees to get a closer examination. "But I've never seen, or even heard of, writing like this. Darn it. This is way over my head." She then rose to her feet. "You can sense the barrier's nature, can't you, Archer?"

_Of course I can. When this barrier is activated, it'll dissolve every human inside. This is soul eating. This fortress of blood specializes in destroying the body to claim the soul. Only a Servant would set something like this up._

That caught Rin by surprise. "Would your kind actually do this?"

_Unfortunately, yes. You see, Servants are essentially non-corporeal beings. Just like how humans eat meat and plants for nourishment, we Servants consume minds and souls. In other words, the more ingested, the greater the mana stores._

"Are you saying that the mana that Servants receive from their Masters isn't enough?" the mage questioned.

_No, it's not that. It's just that more mana is always better,_ Marth answered before saying sarcastically, _But hey, why let things like morals get in the way of making your Servant stronger?_

"Please tell me you'll never suggest this," Rin said in disgust.

_Relax. Unlike this Servant, I do have a code of honor. I would never harm an innocent for my own gain._

Rin released the breath she had been holding. "Good. Now let's erase this. I may not be able to completely undo it, but I can throw a wrench in its works."

Suddenly a new voice cried out, "What, you're going to erase it? What a waste."

Rin immediately went on guard and spun around to see a figure with blue hair tied into a ponytail sitting on the water tower. He wore a deep ultramarine full body suit, gray metallic pauldrons and long metal earrings. He had red eyes and was resting a wicked red spear on his shoulders. Rin could tell that he not human and silently weighed her odds.

"Is this your handiwork?" she asked cautiously.

"Nope," he replied amiably. "Stooping to dirty tricks is a mage's role. My kind simply fights when and where we're told." He then closed his right eye in a mischievous wink. "Right, my invisible buddy?"

Rin let out a gasp and looked over her shoulder, only to see that her Servant had not yet materialized. "So you can see him," Rin said hastily. "That means you're a Servant."

The man rose to his feet, maintaining a slight smirk. "And if you know that, little girl, can I assume you're my enemy?" he questioned.

The mage quickly glanced at her surroundings and saw that she was trapped by fences on all sides. It would be disadvantageous for her and Archer to fight here.

"Impressive," the other Servant remarked. "You seem ignorant, but you have the gist of things. Boy, I really blew it." He then spun his spear around before pointing it to his side, which was briefly surrounded by a red aura. "I shouldn't have let curiosity get the better of me and spoken up."

_Rin, run!_ Marth shouted urgently.

Rin obeyed and began running away, causing the enemy Servant to leap in pursuit. He swung his spear, only to cut empty air as Rin rolled out of the way. He followed up with several more slashes but Rin was able to evade them all, albeit barely. This didn't comfort the mage as she knew that the Servant was only toying with her. No Master could take on a Servant.

Rin quickly channeled her mana into her legs to increase her speed and launch herself forward and over the fence around the roof.

"Archer, handle the landing!" she ordered as she descended towards the ground. Right before she hit the ground, Marth became semi-corporeal and caught her in his arms. He then summoned a pair of bat-like wings before leaping off into the air, using his wings to boost his jump. Archer's landing ended with a skid before setting Rin down so she could use the momentum to run. However, the transition wasn't great as Rin found herself stumbling and breathing hard.

She then heard a sound behind her and knew that it was an enemy attack. Suddenly a loud clash could be heard as Rin ran several more feet before finally stopping and turning around.

The enemy Servant was in a battle stance while Marth had finally materialized, but his wings had vanished. In Archer's right hand was a strange thin metallic cylinder that had a long blade made of silver energy and in his left was a black handgun.

"Archer," Rin whispered as her Servant stared quietly as their enemy.

"Now that's more like it!" the blunette cheered. "I'm okay with people who get right down to business."

"Given your weapon, I assume you're the Lancer Servant, correct?" Marth questioned, his photon sword humming.

"Correct, but you don't strike me as a Saber. Are you the Archer?"

Marth let out an amused chuckle. "Unfortunately, yes," he said slowly. "My Master happened to screw up with my summoning, resulting with me being in this class."

Lancer let out a chuckle while Rin let out a huff. "Talk about bad luck," Lancer said in amusement before holding his spear upright. "Go on, take out your bow, Archer. I'll wait."

Archer narrowed his eyes in suspicion. _"How strange. He's willing to wait for me to switch to a bow,"_ Marth thought to himself. _"It's either out of honor or he's got something up his sleeve that deals with ranged attacks."_ His mind briefly flashed to him trading blows with a similar blue-haired man. _"If Lancer's anything like_ him _, then I should focus on my close combat skills."_

"Archer!" Rin cried out, interrupting his thoughts. "You'll get no assistance from me in this fight. Now show me what you can do."

Marth simply smirked in response. His body radiated with a dark power, creating a strong gust of wind. He then vanished into a blur, leaving a small crater behind. Lancer's eyes widened as he readied his spear before Marth appeared beside him and unleashed a flurry of slashes, which Lancer blocked. The two Servants then dashed around the track, their attacks being blurs for happening so fast. Their ferocity was intense with neither side seeming like they were holding back. Eventually Marth performed a full-powered downward slash towards his opponent's head, which was blocked by Lancer's spear. It seemed to be a stalemate until a gale of black wind surrounded Archer and sent Lancer crashing into the wall of the main school building.

"Incredible," Rin said in awe. "So this is a battle between two Servants."

A metal stand was sent flying into the air and crashed beside Archer, who didn't even flinch. Instead he simply narrowed his eyes at his opponent and readied his sword. Lancer, who was back on his feet, grinned and launched forward, choosing to switch to offense. Marth raised his gun and fired a few bullets at his opponent, only to be surprised as they simply stopped their momentum before they would have hit Lancer's body and just landed harmlessly on the ground.

"Nice try!" Lancer said smugly as he unleashed a flurry of thrusts with his spear, which Marth blocked using his photon sword with incredible speed. "But those things aren't gonna work against me."

Lancer swung his spear, aiming for Archer's head, only for it to be blocked by a silver energy blade as Marth had quickly recovered from his shock. Sparks danced in the air as their weapons clashed, both sides trying to overpower the other.

"A projectile deflection skill," Marth realized in a neutral tone. "So that's why you waited for me to switch to a ranged weapon. I see you never change, Lancer, regardless of where you're from."

The blunette's eyes widened in shock and it caused him to slacken a little but not enough for Archer to exploit. "What?" he said. "What are you talking about?" A feeling of dread fell over the Lancer. Did Archer know his True Name? But how, he hasn't even used his Noble Phantasm yet. It also sounded like Archer knew him personally, but Lancer didn't recognize him at all, especially his weapons.

"You're just trying to mess with me!" Lancer argued as he pushed aside his dread. He then parried Marth's sword, knocking it from his grasp, and thrust his spear forward, aiming right for his opponent's heart.

"Archer!" Rin cried out in worry.

Surprisingly, Marth took on a serious expression as another sword materialized in his right hand while his gun was replaced with another, much to Rin and Lancer's shock. The sword in his right was jet black and seemed to absorb light while left was a pale blue with a blue rose on its hilt. Two scabbards appeared on his back as well, a black on his right and blue one on his left. A blue light flashed around his right sword before Marth swung it upward, deflecting the spear. Then in quick succession, the blue sword gained a bloodred light before Marth thrust it forward.

"Tch," Lancer grunted before quickly jumping back to evade, though he did get a little scratch on his chest from the attack. As soon as his feet touched the ground, he looked at the Archer skeptically. "An Archer who has multiple swords. Just who are you?"

Marth cracked a light smirk as he held his blue sword out while keeping his black one to his side. "You wouldn't know even if I told you," he said simply before getting an idea. "Let's make a deal. If you can get me to bring out my _true swords_ , then I'll tell you my name."

"Are you crazy, Archer?!" Rin cried out in protest. "Why would you do that?!"

Lancer, on the other hand, was laughing up a storm. "Hahaha! You're either very bold or very stupid," he said amicably. "Fine. I accept. You better give me a good fight."

"Oh, trust me," Marth said calmly, his smirk disappearing. "You've never faced an opponent like me before."

The two Servants charged at each other at high-speed, matching blow for blow. Whenever an attack was about to connect, the opponent would either evade or block with their weapons. As they fought, Rin noticed a fierce tenacity in her Servant's eyes, the eyes of someone fighting to survive.

After a while of trading blows, neither Servant was injured and backed away from each other. Lancer was looking annoyed as he kept a guard position while Marth maintained a serious expression, his swords at rest.

"You've got to be kidding me," Lancer said in mild irritation. "Did you let me disarm you the first time?"

"Of course, I let you disarm me," Marth admitted nonchalantly. "My Master ordered me to show her what I'm capable of, so I obeyed. Besides, my photon sword is the weakest weapon in my arsenal. I knew that I had to switch it out if I wanted to beat you."

That only made Lancer even more curious as to the identity of his fellow Servant. There's also the matter of Archer seemingly knowing his identity, but Archer has yet to reveal it. "Damn it," Lancer cursed. "I just can't read you. Just what kind of bowman are you?"

"I'm not a bowman," Archer answered. "I'm a swordsman. Always have been, always will be. You, on the other hand, are quite recognizable. You're as fast as a beast and stand above most spearmen." He then eyed Lancer's spear. "Then there's that weapon you hold. I could never forget that weapon."

Lancer's eyes widened in shock, as did Rin's. "What?! You know my spear?! But how?!"

Marth simply chuckled. "Simple, because one of my foster mothers is the original wielder of that spear. I believe it's called… Gae Bolg."

"Foster mother? It can't be…" There was only one person who matched that description, Lancer's teacher, Scathach, the Queen of the Shadowlands. But that still didn't make any sense. To his knowledge, Scathach never adopted a boy and only had a daughter, Uathach, who Lancer may or may not of had some fun with during his time training in Dun Scaith. This was making his head hurt.

Lancer gritted his teeth. It looks like he'll have to use his strongest attack to try to get Archer to bring out his true swords. If the swordsman in black reveals his name, maybe he'll get the answers he seeks.

He adjusted his stance and had his spear pointed to the ground, the weapon being bathed in crimson light. "I'll force you to bring your true strength with my strongest blow!" Lancer declared, his eyes deadly serious. "I'll find out who you are right now!"

"Very well," Marth said emotionlessly as his black sword began glowing purple. "Let's see if that's enough for me to resort to my true swords."

Meanwhile, Rin could only watch in disbelief. She could sense an immense amount of mana coming from Lancer's body. That could only mean one thing, he was about to unleash his Noble Phantasm.

Suddenly the light around Lancer's spear faded as he turned and shouted, "Who's there?"

Rin followed his gaze and saw someone was running away into the school building.

"A student?" she questioned as she hurried to her Servant, who had lowered his weapons as he observed the fleeing figure. "There was someone still inside the building?"

"Looks that way," Marth said while sheathing his swords. He then noticed that Lancer had disappeared. "Not good. I think Lancer went after him. From what I understand, witnesses aren't allowed, which means Lancer is going to kill him."

Rin let out a gasp. "We have to save that student!" she said hastily.

"Agreed." Marth was then surrounded by a black aura before morphing into a black wolf with white markings. "Get on."

She nodded in acknowledgement and climbed onto the wolf's back, keeping a tight hold on his fur. She'll need to ask her Servant about this later but now wasn't the time. Marth burst into a run as he hurried into the building, using his enhanced senses to track the fleeing student.

Rin cursed herself for being so careless. The first rule of being a magus was eliminating any witnesses. She always hated that rule, so she made sure to be extra careful whenever she was in public. Now she had to save that student before Lancer got to them.

Marth bolted up the stairs and hurried down a dimly lit hallway where he detected an unusual smell, the smell of blood. He let out a growl as a body lying in a pool of blood soon came into view.

"We're too late," he said grimly as Rin slid off his back and approached the body.

"Archer, can you pursue Lancer and find his Master?"

The wolf shook his head before changing into his human form. "He's long gone now. I don't think I can track him."

"I see," Rin said slowly before crouching down. The dying boy in front of her had a mass of blood pouring from his chest. His breathing was raspy as he desperately tried clinging to life.

"I'm sorry," she said slowly. "I'll sit with you until your time comes." Rin then turned him over on his back so she could see his face, only to gasp as she recognized the student. It was none other than Shirou Emiya.

"No," Rin said with quickened breaths, trying hard not to sob. "Why are _you_ here? Why did you have to pick this day to be here? What am I gonna do? How can I face her tomorrow?"

Marth, who was leaning against the wall with his arms folded in front of her and Shirou, looked at his Master in sorrow. He had seen many people, some of them being friends, die in front of him as well. There were times where he felt that the grief would overwhelm him, and in some cases, it did.

"Is there a way to save him?" Marth spoke up, catching the girl's attention.

Suddenly an idea came to Rin's mind. "Yes," she said as she pulled out her red pendant. "I can use this to reconstruct his heart."

"I see. I'd offer to help, but I'm not great at using healing magic. I'll leave this to you."

Rin simply nodded and got to work. She couldn't afford to waste a single second.

* * *

**Later**

Rin was lying on the couch in her living room, staring at the ceiling while resting her arm on her forehead, when Marth suddenly appeared.

"You okay?" he asked in concern.

"Not really," Rin said slowly. "Lancer got away and we couldn't identify his Master. Then there's the matter with Emiya. Did you send a familiar to keep tabs on him?"

"Yes. My other foster mother, Rias, taught me that basic spell. It definitely comes in handy. He made it home safely, but I'll keep it there just in case."

"Good," she replied before sitting up. "One of these days, you'll need to tell me your full story. Maybe then I'll fully understand it." She then noticed Marth holding out his wolf pendant towards her. She had noticed it disappearing yesterday but had the assumption that her Servant had it. "What are you doing?"

"Since you left that other pendant behind, I feel it's fair I give you mine," Archer explained. "I've infused this with some of my essence. It might help you in a pinch, just like it did for me."

Rin eyes went wide but she accepted the pendant and put it on. "Just who are you, Archer?"

Suddenly Marth tensed up as he saw trouble through his familiar's eyes. "We need to go now!" he declared. "Lancer's after him again."

"What?!" Rin said as she quickly stood up. "After what it cost me to save his life, I won't let Lancer kill him again. We need to hurry."

Marth nodded in agreement before they hurried outside. Since they didn't have time to travel by foot, Marth grabbed his Master bridal-style, summoned his wings and took to the air. Soon he landed on a street near their destination and set Rin down.

"He's here," Rin said hastily. "I can sense Lancer nearby." She then took off, following Lancer's presence.

Archer, however, tensed when he sensed another presence nearby. "Wait, Rin!" he shouted before reaching for the Night-Sky Blade and Blue Rose Sword. "There's more than one Servant here."

Rin at the time had made it past the corner and turned around. Suddenly she heard the sound of movement behind her and turned to see an armored figure rushing at her.

Marth then appeared in front of her in a black blur and blocked the attack with his swords. He managed to repel the attack and forced the attacker back while staying in front of his Master.

Rin slowly looked past the swordsman and saw that the figure was a woman dressed in an armor-plated blue battledress. She had blonde hair tied back in a bun with a blue ribbon, her bangs framing her face, green eyes, and was wielding a weapon sheathed in air.

"No way," she said in disbelief. "It's the Saber."

**To be continued**

* * *

**Wow, this chapter was longer than I intended. I wanted to include the Lancer battle and end the chapter with a brief clash with Saber and well, this happened. Anyway, Marth's battle with Lancer has shown some of his abilities. This is actually a future version of him and I'm looking forward to showing what else he can do. I'll see you guys next time!**


	3. Shirou Emiya

The city of Fuyuki in flames, the heat stinging Shirou's skin as he struggled walking in an aimless direction. Buildings crumbled from the immense heat. People were dying all around him, every one of them begging to him for help, but the redhead ignored them and continued onward, despite how much it pained him to do so. It was a literal Hell on Earth, death and destruction stretching as far as the eye can see. This was what half of Fuyuki looked like ten years ago, the cause of it unknown to the boy.

His whole body ached as he suffered from multiple burns he got from the cursed fires before his strength finally vanished and he collapsed on the hot earthen ground. His vision became cloudy and were starting to lose their focus. He couldn't feel, he couldn't remember, the flames having taken everything away from him.

Shirou found himself being turned onto his back and saw a man with black hair and trench coat above him. The man's dead eyes were filled with tears and smiled with relief.

"You're alive," the man said joyfully. "You're alive. Thank you."

His vision was then overwhelmed by a gentle golden light.

* * *

"Shirou?" a female voice called out. "It's time to wake up."

Shirou let out a slight groan as he woke from his dream. It was a memory that has haunted him for the last ten years. He turned from his sprawled position on the stone ground and gazed up at the purple-haired girl, kneeling beside him. "Good morning, Sakura," he said slowly.

Sakura was wearing her school uniform, her red ribbon tied to her hair on the right side of her face. She was smiling kindly at him.

"Right, same to you, Shirou. I hope you slept well last night."

The male teen rose up to a sitting position and held his head in his right, trying to shake off his remaining fatigue. He could still feel phantom pains from the flames in his dream across his body, but it was manageable.

Shirou let out a light groan. "Sorry, Sakura," he said sincerely. "I should be helping with the morning chores."

The female Matou simply shook her head. "Don't worry about it, Shirou. You were up late again last night, weren't you?"

"Yeah, but that's no excuse," Shirou argued. Ever since Sakura came to his house after he got injured at his part-time job during the summer of his first year at Homurahara High School, she had been helping with the cooking and housework. Even though he had long since recovered, Sakura still kept coming over to help out. Despite this, Shirou didn't mind as he saw the purple-haired girl as a surrogate sister.

"I know but let me handle the morning chores," Sakura insisted. "But you should at least clean this storehouse. If you leave it this messy, Miss Fujimura will scold you."

Shirou glanced around and noticed the various pieces of equipment and parts scattered around the work shed. They were all either half-finished repair jobs or parts for his evening practice. "Good point. I'll leave the house chores to you then."

"Okay," Sakura replied as she began leaving the work shed. "Breakfast will be ready soon, so don't take too long."

As soon as she was out of sight, Shirou let out a sigh. Once again, he had fallen asleep before finishing his late-night practice. It showed how much he lacked focus. He reached out and laid his hand on a metal rod behind him and briefly touched it with his power before stopping. He then got to work with cleaning up his workplace.

After he was done cleaning, he left the shed and headed over to the dojo to do his morning workout routine. His exercises helped him shrug off his remaining fatigue and think about the dreams he had been having. The first was of the Fuyuki fire, but that one made sense since it was a traumatic event for the teen. The second dream he had was stranger though. It was about a golden sword of incredible beauty and craftsmanship. A regal weapon that was incredibly powerful, and one that felt strangely familiar to him for reasons unknown.

Sometimes that second dream would show someone wielding that sword. A girl dressed in an armored blue battledress, her brilliant blonde hair tied up in a bun with a blue ribbon. She always seemed stoic, unflinching, unreachable. It was a very odd dream that Shirou could never understand. To make things even more confusing, that dream has been happening more frequently as of late.

Shirou then finished his daily workout and went to his room to get dressed. After that he went into the kitchen and dining room of his large home. His house was a large Japanese-styled house with only one floor. It is very expansive, having a few guest houses along with the shed and dojo. It was one of the few things he had inherited from his adopted father, Kiritsugu Emiya, who had unfortunately died five years ago.

Sakura had finished making breakfast and set everything up while Taiga Fujimura was already sitting at the low table, her face buried in a newspaper. She wore a yellow shirt with green horizontal stripes, blue pants, and a teal-colored sweatshirt. Her short hair was light brown, her eyes being a similar color.

"Thanks, Sakura," Shirou said in gratitude as he made his way to the table. "But I feel terrible making you do all this."

"It's no trouble at all," Sakura passed off. "I do it because I enjoy it."

As he sat down, Shirou glanced over at the other woman. "Good morning, Fuji-nee."

"Good morning." Fujimura's reply was rather dull, very different from her usual energetic self. The redhead found this odd, but he quickly dismissed it. This wasn't the first time Fujimura acted strange, and doubtfully the last.

The teens gave thanks for the food and began eating their morning meal. Shirou added some soy sauce to his dish, unaware of Fujimura's mischievous smirk, and took another bite of his food. As soon as he did so, his body began to violently spasm, sending him rolling backward and sprawling across the floor.

It wasn't because the taste was off, but because it was outright terrible! It wasn't soy sauce that he had spread over his food, it was something else. It was Worcestershire sauce, one that was oyster flavored.

"What the hell?!" Shirou exclaimed in disgust. "Who would eat this with grated yams?"

Fujimura began laughing, regaining her usual energy and tossing her newspaper aside as she stood up. "Ha! I swapped the labels on the Worcestershire sauce and soy sauce bottles earlier," she declared, her voice full of pride. She then stuck childly her tongue at the downed teen.

"Who pulls a stunt like that first thing in the morning?" Shirou complained while rising to his knees. "You'll be twenty-five this year. I guess you'll always be the same Fuji-nee."

"You deserved it!" she replied in the same childish manner. "It's payback for yesterday." Fujimura then sat back down and began wolfing down her food.

Sakura, who had been left completely shocked from the rapidly moving events, quickly grabbed a cup of tea, and offered it to the redhead. "Shirou, drink this."

Shirou gladly accepted the drink but maintained his gaze on the older woman. "I thought you were being too quiet. So you were plotting this prank since yesterday." He quickly scarfed down the tea to purge the awful taste from his mouth.

"Damn straight," Fujimura confirmed before pointing her chopsticks at him. "And because of that, now I have to get going in a hurry to grade some tests. So I gotta run or I'll never get done in time." She quickly wolfed down several more helpings of food before saying thanks to Sakura for the meal and bolted out the door.

After that, the two teens finished up their own meals.

"Damn that Fuji-nee," Shirou cursed as he and Sakura began washing the dishes. "I know she's the landlord's granddaughter, but why must she eat here every day? She's no better than a freeloader."

"Did you do something to her yesterday?" Sakura asked curiously, wanting to know the reason behind the prank.

"Yeah, I accidently called her by her nickname," he admitted slowly.

"Then it was your own fault. You need to be careful. She hates that nickname, especially when you say it."

He didn't reply to that, mostly because he knew she was right. It got silent in the room, save for the sounds of the TV. The newsperson on the television was reporting about another gas leak that had occurred in an office building in New Fuyuki. There have been quite a few of them recently, and the cause of them was unknown. Luckily, no one has died from them.

"Another gas leak in New Fuyuki?" Shirou commented. "That's disturbing. We need to be careful too."

"Don't worry. I always double-check the gas valve every day, so we'll be safe," Sakura said a little too enthusiastically.

Shirou could only sweatdrop at that. "I think you missed the point," he deadpanned.

The duo finished up with cleaning the kitchen before heading to school. Once they reached the school grounds, they went separate ways. Sakura was part of the archery club, which had morning and after school practices. Shirou was once a member himself, but certain circumstances led him to quitting.

Sakura offered the redhead to come with her, but he politely turned her down. He didn't feel up to going to the archery dojo, plus he had other plans at the student council office. Sakura was disappointed at that, but didn't push the matter further, and the two split up.

However, as Shirou was making his way to the main school building, he felt a strange breeze brush past him. He looked and saw that the light wind current was heading towards the archery dojo. What surprised him was that there was a young man standing at the entrance, gazing inside. He looked around eighteen years old and raven black hair. He wore a black school uniform (which was odd as Homurahara's school uniforms were brown), a white undershirt, and leather boots. No one else seemed to notice him though as they were simply walking past him without batting an eye, which was very strange.

_"Strange,"_ Shirou questioned to himself. _"I've never seen that guy before. But why's everyone else ignoring him?"_

As if hearing his thoughts, the raven-haired teen turned and faced Shirou with eyes as red as blood. The gaze was so intense that Shirou found himself flinching in response. It was almost like the teen's eyes contained some kind of power in them, power that felt like it could destroy his very being should the boy allow it.

Another gust blew past Shirou, prompting him to shield his eyes with his arms. When he finally lowered his arms, the boy was gone. Shirou examined the school grounds from where he stood, but he couldn't find any sign of the mysterious student. Was he just imagining things?

* * *

"The school's budgeting priorities are completely out of whack," Issei, the student council president, grumbled. He and Shirou were sitting in the student council room, with Issei in a chair while Shirou was on the floor and trying to fix a space heater.

"Yeah, athlete clubs get the lion's share of the budget while the rest just get scraps," Shirou agreed.

"As a result, most of the non-athletic club rooms are in poor repair. They've given zero thought in resolving our heater issues."

"Seriously? There are more broken heaters?" Shirou asked in disbelief.

"There are."

The redhead sighed internally, realizing that his day would be busier than he initially expected, before running his hand over the heater and said, "Like I thought, this one is showing its age. I think I can fix it though. Can you please wait outside?"

"Sure. Do whatever you need to."

"Okay," Shirou acknowledged and waited until Issei exited the room, closing the door behind him.

He rested his fingertips on the broken machine and began using his magic. He focused his mana to create a magic circuit like Kiritsugu had taught him and sent a pulse of mana into the heater. From that pulse came an understanding of the machine's construction, even to the tiniest detail.

From what his magic has told him, there are two spots where the heating element is about to break. The heat transfer pipe was still good, and the power cord could be patched up with electrical tape for now.

With that new knowledge under his belt, he got to work on repairing the heater with his tools as there wasn't a need to use his other talents. His skill with magic was pretty poor so it would most likely make things worse. The only magic he was decent at was reinforcement magic and one other type that he hasn't used for years. But even his skills in those areas were subpar.

Shirou was just wrapping up the power cord with electrical tape when he heard Issei talking with someone outside. He was able to catch the name "Tohsaka" and the student council president's polite sniping. He then quickly gathered his tools and picked up the heater, having decided to save his friend from his situation.

"Okay, Issei, I fixed it," Shirou announced as he exited the room and set the heater down.

"Oh, sorry," Issei said as he turned away from Tohsaka and hurried over to the redhead. "I asked for your help, but you did it all, Emiya. My bad."

"It's fine. Where's the next one? We don't have a lot of time."

"In the AV room. They say it's been acting up lately, but it's finally exhausted its lifespan."

"If it's dead then I can't fix it," Shirou said while sparing a glance at the school idol. Rin Tohsaka looked as beautiful as always, but uninterested in the boys' discussion. She was wearing her usual red coat on top of her school uniform and her dark hair tied into tails that helped frame her face. "Buying a new one would be faster."

"That's true, but I'd appreciate it if you could take a look anyway," Issei answered. "It looked dead to me, but you might be able to tell if it's faking or not."

Rin began walking past them as Issei was speaking.

"Okay, I'll try." Shirou shifted slightly towards Tohsaka and added in a casual tone, "You're here early, Tohsaka."

She didn't reply and continued walking down the hallway. Issei had went back into the student council room and Shirou was about to join him when he suddenly felt someone brush past his left arm. He turned to look and saw the same raven-haired teen from earlier casually strolling down the hallway, hands buried in his pockets. The teen seemed to be following Rin, who didn't seem to notice.

"What the?" Shirou questioned aloud, his tone full of shock.

"What's wrong?" Issei asked obliviously as he was gathering their things in the room.

Shirou quickly calmed himself before shifting towards the student council president and asked, "Hey, Issei, do you know that student?"

Issei raised an eyebrow in confusion. "Which student?"

"That one." Shirou turned and pointed down the hall, only to see it empty, the black garbed student long gone. "Uh, never mind."

"Are you feeling alright, Emiya? Did you not get enough sleep or something?"

"Maybe," he said with a sigh. "Let's go. We're running out of time."

* * *

Unfortunately, Shirou was only able to fix some of the remaining broken heaters before it was time for homeroom. He and Issei agreed to fix the rest during lunch as they walked into their classroom.

"You're quite the busy bee this morning, Emiya," Shinji Matou said as he stood near the back of the room, twirling a strand of his blue hair. "I was wondering what you'd been up to after you quit the club. You're the student council president's errand boy?"

Shirou lifted his arm to hold back Issei, who had taken a breath to retaliate. "If you need something, you can tell me, Shinji. If it's something I can help with, I will. You were never very good at restringing and mending bows."

Shinji looked mildly shocked for a quick moment before growling. "I don't want or need your help," he snapped in outrage. "And anyway, you aren't a member anymore, so stay out of the dojo!" The Matou then stormed over to his desk and took a seat.

"What a jerk," Issei commented bitterly. "Talking to you like that when he's the one who drove you out of the club."

"It's okay," Shirou passed off. "That's just how he is. When you've known him a long time, you get used to it."

The school bell rang, which meant that Miss Fujimura was about to come barreling inside, so Shirou and Issei sat out their desks. After the bell rang for the second time, the 2-C classroom door opened, and Fujimura came barreling in.

"Good morning!" she called out enthusiastically. Unfortunately, she couldn't stop her momentum and ended up banging her head on the corner of her desk.

What was even more unfortunate was that this wasn't unusual, with the signs of no one asking if she was okay in a deadpan tone showing that everyone was used to the teacher's antics.

Some of the students began questioning if she really managed to kill herself this time or was merely unconscious. One idea that was quickly dismissed was to throw something at her, but they ended up choosing the more dangerous, but effective, option.

Most of the students said, "Wake up, Tiger."

Taiga Fujimura quickly sprung to her feet, her face almost taking on the persona of the animal from which her nickname came from, and shouted, "What?!"

* * *

Shirou's school day went by normally, at least for someone like him. At lunchtime, he and Issei went to the student council office to fix the remaining heaters, but Shirou also decided to fix any personal items other students have requested to have repaired. Issei warned him that he was being too considerate, opening himself up to be taken advantage of. Shirou felt that Issei didn't have much to say on the matter since he's the heir to a temple. Issei then retorted that if Shirou continued with not turning anyone away, then he would just burn himself out.

He ended up staying at school late, trying to fix the heaters, so when he decided to head home, it was already dark out. As he walked beside the road, he spotted a young girl with pure white hair and red eyes. She was wearing a purple jacket with white buttons and a purple hat and boots.

The girl began walking towards him as soon as he got close.

"If you don't summon yours soon, you're going to die, big brother," she said as she walked past him.

Shirou immediately halted in his tracks and turned around, only to see that the girl was already gone. She was the second person today that seems to love disappearing into thin air. What really caught his interest was that she called him "big brother". It greatly puzzled the teen.

"What a weird day this has been," Shirou commented before continuing towards his house.

When he finally got home, he immediately got an earful from Fujimura from the dinner table. Sakura was there too as she always ate dinner with them.

"At times like this, you should really come home early!" she said in frustration. "I said in homeroom that it hasn't been safe in town lately, remember?"

Shirou suppressed the urge to groan. "Um…something came up," he said unconvincingly.

Fujimura could only sigh in response. "Do you get that from Kiritsugu? I worry about you because you're always trying to help people…"

The female Matou raised an eyebrow in curiosity as she faced the teacher. She had been relatively quiet until she finally decided to speak up. "Excuse me, Miss Fujimura. Was Shirou always like this?"

"Yeah, for as long as I've known him. Shirou just doesn't have it in him to ignore people in need. Once as a kid, he wrote an essay saying that he'll become a hero of justice when he grows up."

Sakura's eyes widened in amazement. "Wow, you were an amazing child!" she said in awe to the redhead.

Shirou, however, wasn't as impressed. "Chalk it up to Fuji-nee," he said somewhat tiredly. "When kids see immature adults, they tend to get funny ideas put into their heads." He then cracked a smirk and added, "If you don't like it, cook your own damn meal for once."

"Wha?!" Fuji-nee exclaimed as she reeled back in shock, her eyes looking ready to cry. "You're reducing your 'big sis' to tears!" Less than a second later, she immediately recovered and grabbed her bowl. "Sakura, another refill!" she said in her usual cheerful voice.

Dinner went by quickly after that. Once the trio had finished their meals and cleaned the dishes, Shirou walked Sakura and Fujimura outside and bade them farewell. After that, he headed back to the shed to practice with his magic again.

"Trace on," he muttered as he created a magic circuit, causing his hands to gain glowing blue lines. He began using his magic to analyze the structure of the metal pipe lying in front of him by transferring the blue lines to the pipe.

Reinforcement magic was a rather interesting magic, at least to Shirou. Not only did it allow him to analyze the structure of any items, which made repair jobs rather easy as it allowed him to quickly find any defective parts. Theoretically, he could also this magic to enhance the durability of any items he held, or his own body, however his skills were nowhere close to that level. Not to mention that Kiritsugu never really taught Shirou that much about magic, heck Shirou had to beg the man to teach him. Since his father was dead, he could only try teaching himself, and if his numerous failures had anything to say, he wasn't very good at that.

_"If I want to get better at magic, I'll have to find another teacher,"_ Shirou thought to himself after he failed to reinforce the pipe yet again. Despite only just beginning, he was already feeling exhausted. _"But I don't know any other mages in Fuyuki."_ He then glanced out the window to look at the clear starry night sky. _"It'd be nice if someone that could teach me more would show up. I can't become a hero of justice if I'm stuck as a novice mage."_

He let himself chuckle at the thought. If he were still a child, he could try the old myth of wishing on a shooting star for a new teacher to show up at his house. Sadly, he wasn't naïve enough to try now. Shirou went back to practicing, switching to different equipment, and of course failing at every try. However, had he watched the night sky for just a moment longer, he would have noticed a purple star flying through the sky, heading straight for the house of a certain raven-haired mage.

* * *

**The Next Day**

Shirou and Sakura were making breakfast together when the redhead noticed a strange bruise on the girl. Eggs were sizzling in the pans and as Sakura brought out some plates from a low cabinet, he spotted a dark, faded mark on the back of her left hand.

"Sakura, wait a second," Shirou said suddenly.

"Yes?" she asked curiously as she turned her head towards him.

"What happened to your hand?" Sakura immediately covered the mark with her other hand and turned away from him. "Shinji again?" Anger rose within him with every word, increasing the sharpness in his tone. "What's he thinking, raising a hand to his little sister?"

"N-no, that's not it, Shirou!" Sakura said hastily, holding her hands close to her chest. "I, um, bumped it when I tripped and fell."

Shirou knew that was a lie. Sakura may be a good cook and archer, but she was a terrible liar.

"You can't get a bruise like that from tripping," Shirou rebuked, causing Sakura to deflate and refuse to make eye contact with the redhead. "I knew it."

Suddenly Sakura turned around and faced the teen with renewed determination. "Honest, my brother had nothing to do with this," she said defiantly. "I got hurt by myself, that's all!"

Any anger Shirou was replaced with shock before he sighed in defeat. "If that's what you say happened, then I'll leave it at that."

"It is. I'm sorry, Shirou."

"Why are you apologizing, Sakura? Shinji's the one to blame."

Before the Matou could even think of a reply, Fujimura sprinted into dining room. "Do I smell your famous rolled omelets, Shirou?" she asked eagerly, completely oblivious to the teens' conversation.

The rest of the morning was largely uneventful after that, with the exception of Shirou noticing the police investigating a house on his way to school. At lunch, however, he decided to break to his usual routine as he had forgotten to bring a lunch.

"Sorry, Issei," Shirou said sincerely when his friend offered to eat lunch together. "I'm going to eat lunch in the cafeteria today."

"You don't usually eat there," Issei commented. "Did something happen?"

"Not really."

Before Issei could respond, he got called by their ethics teacher, Kuzuki, prompting the student council president to leave to speak with the teacher in private. Shirou, on the other hand, left to go to the cafeteria.

"Going for the Chef's Choice for lunch today, huh?" a certain student questioned as Shirou was selecting his meal ticket.

He turned towards the student and immediately noticed her shoulder-length brown hair and golden-brown eyes. "You aren't eating with the student council president today?" Mitsuzuri added.

"Looks that way," Shirou answered as he retrieved his meal ticket. He and Mitsuzuri then went to the line of students to get their meals. Seeing a good opportunity to ask about Sakura's behaviour, he suddenly asked, "Say, Mitsuzuri… Has Sakura seemed okay to you lately?"

"Sakura? Yeah, she's practicing her heart out!" she said enthusiastically. They waited a minute or so to get their lunches before going to an empty table to continue their conversation. "It's her brother that's the problem. He's been tearing into the first-year students."

"What for?" Shirou knew that Shinji could be a jerk at times, but this seemed strange to him.

"From what I hear, he got shot down pretty hard by Tohsaka."

"Tohsaka?!" Shirou cried out in surprise, immediately getting hushed by the archery captain in response.

"Anyway," Mitsuzuri continued, "ever since yesterday, Shinji's been in a bad mood. I've had to keep a close eye on Shinji during practice, and it's exhausting."

The redhead couldn't blame the archery captain. He was well aware that the older Matou has a pretty nasty temper. It makes sense that Mitsuzuri would try to keep him in line.

"That's not all. I also heard a rumor that Shinji's planning something to get even with Tohsaka."

"Are you sure?" Shirou asked in exasperation. "I doubt even Shinji would try to get anywhere near someone who's rejected him."

Unexpectedly, Mitsuzuri let out a heavy sigh, taking a pause from eating her noodles. "Except he can't avoid her if she comes to where she is." She noticed Shirou's confusion, so she went into further detail. "I don't know why, but recently Tohsaka has been coming to watch at the dojo a lot. You probably don't know since you quit and all."

Shirou briefly looked away in shame. "Oh yeah. That would explain it." Suddenly he found himself thinking about the black-haired boy he saw outside the archery dojo yesterday. "Hey, Mitsuzuri, have you seen a male student wearing a black uniform around the dojo?"

Surprisingly, Mitsuzuri said, "You too? You're the second person to ask me this."

That caught Shirou off-guard. "What?" he asked. "Who was the first?"

"Sakura. She told me that she saw a male student in a black uniform in the hallway as she was heading to one of her classes yesterday. I haven't seen him myself though. What's interesting though is that Sakura also said that the boy seemed to be following Tohsaka."

_"Just like what happened when I saw him outside the student council office,"_ Shirou thought to himself. Is Tohsaka in a relationship with that teen, or is he a stalker? Better question, why were him and Sakura the only ones who seemed to be able to see the mysterious boy? It was doubtful that Sakura would have any answers, plus after his questioning this morning, it was doubtful the Matou would say anything, which meant that Shirou might have to ask the school idol herself. But how do you ask an idol about a potential stalker that could escape the gaze of an entire building of students?

"Have you noticed anything strange?" Shirou pressed further. "It can be anything."

Mitsuzuri raised an eyebrow with interest. "Wow, wasn't expecting you to be interested in this."

"I'm just trying to make sure Tohsaka's not in any danger. There've been a lot of strange incidents in Fuyuki lately. I don't want Tohsaka to be the next victim."

The archery captain simply smirked. She would definitely tease the boy for this later. She took another bite of her noodles before answering, "Well Tohsaka did come to school early yesterday, which is a first for her. Other than that, no."

Shirou could only sigh. He shouldn't have expected Mitsuzuri to have much information. Looks like he'll have to investigate this himself.

* * *

After school ended, Shirou went over to the archery dojo. He hoped to find Shinji to question him about Sakura's bruise or that black-haired boy to ask about Tohsaka. A new thought came to his mind. Was the boy following Tohsaka, not because he was a stalker, but out of concern for her safety in case the older Matou tried anything on the school idol?

"When Shinji gets mad, he doesn't know when to quit," Shirou said to himself knowingly. "I really hope that student is trying to protect Tohsaka and isn't out to harm her."

"Hey you!" a new voice shouted. Shirou heard the sound of something coming his way and quickly turned around and stepped back, narrowly avoiding the pole vaulter's pole, which instead made a crescent in the dirt. There were three girls in front of him. One had orange hair, the second had silver, and the third had dark hair and skin. The third girl was also the one holding the pole, her legs spread to distribute her weight more evenly on the ground.

"Shinji Matou," the dark-skinned girl announced with a smirk, "I hate to break it to you, but no matter how long you wait, Rin Tohsaka isn't coming!" The girl then tried to act all heroic by spinning the pole around in fast, complex movements, but it was clearly more for show than anything else.

However, instead of feeling threatened, Shirou instead felt confusion. Why wouldn't he? This girl thinks he's Shinji.

"Maki, this guy doesn't match Mitsuzuri's description," the silver-haired girl commented in a cool tone, contrary to the dark-haired girl's eager one. "He doesn't have wavy hair, either."

"The way I see it, he just wet his naturally curly hair down today," the dark-haired girl said stubbornly. "A face this stupid-looking could only belong to Shinji Matou!"

Wanting to diffuse the situation and clear up the confusion, Shirou said, "No, I'm not Shinji."

Unfortunately, this did little as Maki refused to back down. "See what I mean? That's what the bad guys always say."

She got ready to prepare another attack, however, the silver-haired girl came to Shirou's rescue by saying, "Wait." She then went over to the male teen. "Sorry, but do you mind showing us your student ID?"

"S-sure." Shirou pulled out his ID from his breast pocket and handed it to the girl, who casually accepted it before showing it to Maki.

Almost instantly, Maki dropped the pole she was holding and looked completely horrified.

"Like he said," the brown-haired girl said as Maki was sweating bullets, "we have the wrong man."

Maki turned around, either out of shame or embarrassment, and began shaking. "Emiya? _That_ Emiya?" she questioned hastily. "That guy who fixes our gear whenever he has a spare moment? The one they call 'Homurahara's Brownie'?"

"I don't know that nickname," Shirou said casually, silently glad the confusion has been cleared up, "but I do know the track club president when I see her."

Maki immediately began apologizing, with her even getting on the ground in a bow.

"We're sorry," the third girl added. "You seemed to be looking for someone, so we just assumed…"

"That's okay," Shirou dismissed. "What was that about Tohsaka not coming? Has something happened?"

"She stayed home today."

"Yeah. Tohsaka says she has a cold, so she's staying home, good sir. Hard to believe a model student like her is capable of catching a cold, though." She was immediately silenced as the silver-haired girls sat on her.

"We're sorry if our exotic beast here caused you any trouble, Emiya," she said calmly. "But you shouldn't be here, either. Weren't you told that students with no club meetings should go straight home?"

"No, I wasn't," Shirou said honestly. "Why?"

"You don't know? There was a murder incident at the intersection near the school. Of the family of four, the only survivor was a child. They say the parents and older sister were stabbed to death. The killer is still at large, and everyone's freaking out about the way it seems like a random killing."

_"Great,"_ Shirou thought sarcastically as he left the girls and headed for the bus station, though the latter happened after he briefly visited the outside of the crime scene. _"In New Fuyuki, we have to deal with gas leaks. Over here, we've got grisly murders."_

He got on the bus to take him back into the city. As the bus headed out, he found his thoughts focusing on his adoption by Kiritsugu. Kiritsugu had visited him in the hospital some time after the fire, asking him on whether he preferred being sent to an orphanage or being adopted by the man he only just met. It was straightforward, but kind. Shirou, of course, chose to stay with Kiritsugu, much the older mage's joy. That was also the day he learned that his new father was a mage. After what Shirou had just experienced at the time, it wasn't that hard to believe that.

Shirou went to his work at Copenhagen and stayed until it was evening. However, as he was heading to the bus stop, he suddenly had a feeling that he was being watched. He glanced up at one of the buildings and saw two figures on its roof. One was wearing a red jacket while the other was hard to see as they were garbed in black and blended with the night sky. His eyes were better than most and he had a sneaky feeling that the figure in red was none other than Rin Tohsaka.

He closed his eyes for only a moment before opening them and saw that the roof was empty.

* * *

Sakura wasn't at his house tonight. Instead it was just him and Fuji-nee, who was in the dining room watching TV while eating crackers. The house was largely dark, save for the light from the television and the dining room.

"Where's Sakura?" Shirou questioned as he quickly noticed the purple-haired girl's absence.

"She went home early tonight," Fujimura answered back.

"Why did you send her home alone? You were the one who warned us that going out alone wasn't safe, remember?" he replied while turning off the television.

"It's fine. It's fine," the English teacher reassured. "I sent one of my guys with her."

That person could either be a person she knew from kendo or one of her grandfather's employees. Her grandfather was a real estate owner and was actually a yakuza boss. If one of his members was the one who escorted Sakura, then she should be safe. However, that wasn't the issue Shirou had with his "big sis".

"You're our teacher," Shirou deadpanned. "You should've been the one to go."

"If I did that, then I wouldn't get to eat dinner until after 10. Anyway, it's your own fault for coming home so late because of work. On your workdays, my stomach always has to patiently wait."

"Except you also have the option to eat at your _own_ home, too," the redhead replied.

"I've told you, this _is_ my home."

Shirou couldn't help but smile and decided to let it go. He was glad that Sakura was safe and if that really was Tohsaka that he saw on that building, she should be okay too. If that second figure was who he thought they were, then the raven-haired girl wouldn't have gone home alone. It was then that he noticed several rolls of paper lying beside him.

"What's this?" he asked curiously as he picked one of them up and unrolled it.

"Oh, someone gave me that," Fujimura answered. "But I don't want it, so you can have it."

"I don't want it either," Shirou said calmly as he rerolled the poster before swinging it down at Fuji-nee like a sword.

Fujimura smiled as she easily dodged it before grabbing another poster and smacked it on the teen's head. There was a heavy sound and Shirou briefly saw stars.

"If you think you can hit me with skills like that, you're sadly mistaken," Fuji-nee said with pride. "If you don't like it, you better practice more."

"No," he said with a growl. "I don't think that was your _only_ advantage. What is that poster made of?"

"Oh," Taiga said with false surprise. "It's a special one they gave me. It's made of sheet metal."

"Sheet metal?!" he said in surprise. "Who makes a poster like that and uses it as a weapon on someone?!" His head was still throbbing from the attack. It didn't help that Fujimura doesn't exactly pull her swings.

He decided to push past the pain and begin making some dinner for him and Fuji-nee. Unbeknownst to Shirou, tomorrow would the day that everything would change for him.

**To be continued**

* * *

**Sorry for the late update. I was hoping to get this done sooner but I'm in the middle of midterms, plus I was busy with my reboot of my Xenoblade 2 story. Anyway, I was hoping to get to Saber's summoning in this chapter, but it was getting pretty long and I didn't want to cut anything. Despite that, we get to see Shirou's side from the first three days and he was surprisingly able to see phantoms of Marth prior to his summoning. I wonder how that could have happened? That will be answered...at a later date! I'll see you guys next time!**


	4. The Fateful Night

Sakura was at the Emiya household helping out with breakfast and chores as usual. Shirou didn't once bring up the strange mark on her hand, wanting to not have a repeat of yesterday. Instead, as they were washing the dishes, he decided to talk about a different topic. Fuji-nee had already left for school with her usual enthusiasm.

"Hey, Sakura," he spoke up kindly. "Have you seen a male student wearing a black school uniform?"

The younger Matou paused from scrubbing one of the bowls and looked at the redhead in surprise. "How did you know?" she asked.

"Mitsuzuri told me," he replied honestly. "Do you know anything about him?"

Sakura was silent for a moment before shaking her head. "No, I don't," she said sadly. "I'm sorry."

Shirou let out a heavy sigh. He figured Sakura didn't have any answers, but it was worth a shot. Rin Tohsaka is probably his best shot since she seems to have a connection to the student.

"It's fine," he said reassuringly. "Don't worry about it. I just thought I'd ask to be sure."

Sakura looked a little disappointed that she wasn't able to help, but she pushed it aside with a faint smile. The rest of their morning routine went by quickly after that. That is, until the two teens began heading to school.

"I'm sorry, Shirou," Sakura said guiltily. "But after tonight, I won't be able to help out with dinner for a while. Do you mind?"

That took the redhead by surprise. It was very rare for Sakura to say she couldn't come over at night. The only times she didn't come to his house is when she got sick. However, Shirou decided to be more positive on whatever reason his surrogate sister might have.

"Don't worry about it," he said in understanding. "It's the weekend, anyway. You should be hanging out with your friends."

Surprisingly, Sakura was taken aback by the remark and quickly shook her head. "No, it's not like that," she replied a little more vigorously. "It's a personal thing, but I'll still be going to club practices! S-so if anything comes up, please come to the dojo, and I'll do what I can." She drew closer and closer as she spoke, her cheeks becoming increasingly red as the distance between them decreased. "It's not like I'm goofing off just because it's the weekend!"

This time, Shirou wasn't only surprised by the female Matou's declaration, but her insistent tone. Sakura realized this as well and quickly backed off, looking completely flustered with embarrassment, her cheeks still red.

"I-I mean, I'd appreciate it if you didn't get the wrong idea," she corrected while looking away.

"Understood," Shirou said with a light smile. "If something comes up, then I'll come to the dojo."

"Okay, that would be great," Sakura replied as she returned her gaze to the redhead, but she then let out gasp as she noticed something different about her friend. "Shirou, your hand!" she added in alarm.

Shirou checked the back of his left hand, where he saw that a faded mark had appeared there, almost like a bruise. It was strangely similar to Sakura's. However, he didn't know how he could have gotten such a mark.

"That's weird," he commented. "Did I cut myself while I was tinkering with my old junk?" It didn't hurt so he didn't feel that worried about it. Sakura, however, looked worried about something, but she wouldn't say why.

Shirou prepared to head out for school, but when he faced the gate, he noticed a figure hiding in the shadows just outside the property. He couldn't make out much as they were well concealed by the darkness. However, he could tell that the figure was tall and had long purple hair, as well as a strange magenta visor.

"Who's out there?!" he called out warily.

He rushed over to the archway to get a better look, but the figure was already gone. They couldn't be seen running down either direction of the street. It was like they vanished into the very air.

"Is something wrong, Shirou?" Sakura questioned as she hurried over to him.

He spent a few seconds examining the immediate area, but he couldn't see anyone else nearby. Was he imagining things, or was that figure in a similar situation to that student in black?

"It's nothing," Shirou passed off. "Let's get going."

Sakura didn't reply and two of them began making their way to school. Along the way, Shirou kept an eye out on the purple haired figure from earlier, but they never appeared again.

It didn't take the duo long to reach their school, but as soon as Shirou set one foot on the grounds, he instantly felt that something was _off_. His vision briefly became purple and he had some trouble breathing, almost like something was trying to leech his very life. This strange sensation quickly passed; however, he was still very confused.

_"Maybe I'm just tired,"_ Shirou told himself, but he had a hard time believing it.

* * *

Shirou spent most of his free time during and after school fixing the remaining space heaters, as well as any other damaged equipment people had given him at campus. By the time he was done, the sun was already starting to set.

"Thanks to you, Emiya," Issei said in relief, "it looks like we'll have all the equipment fixed before exams begin. I really have to thank you again."

"No problem," Shirou said casually. "See you later."

The two then parted ways, with Shirou heading down the stairs to reach the ground floor. When he reached the second floor and was about to go down the last flight of stairs, he heard the laughter of a few girls. He halted in his tracks and turned to see Shinji walking down the hall with two girls. They all fell silent as they noticed each other.

"Shinji," Shirou said dully, devoid of any emotions. The memory of the strange mark on Sakura's hand suddenly returned, urging him to question the Matou for answers, and take action if needed.

"Still at school, Emiya," Shinji said with his usual bravado. That all but convinced Shirou to proceed.

"I need to talk to you. Come with me for a minute."

"A minute?" Shinji questioned dismissively, clearly not interested as he looked away with a smug grin. "Sorry. As you can see, I'm busy. Whatever your little problem is, it can wait. Isn't that right, girls?"

The Matou and the girls began walking away, but Shirou had no intention of waiting.

"Hang on, Shinji," he spoke up loudly. "This is about the bruise on Sakura's hand."

"What?" Shinji asked as he stopped in his tracks, not sounding concerned whatsoever. "What's this about Sakura?"

"Don't dodge the question," Shirou said in a serious tone. "You hurt her again, didn't you?!"

"Like I know anything about her!" the Matou snapped.

Shirou narrowed his eyes in suspicion. "Even though you're siblings?"

The archery club's vice-captain's face twisted in anger as he realized the implication of his "friend's" words. "Look, Emiya," he said in irritation. "You're getting on my nerves. If it's about something between siblings, isn't that all the more reason for you to butt out?"

"You really don't know how she got it?" Shirou questioned. For a brief second, he felt a slight breeze brush past him, but he ignored it and kept his eye contact with the Matou.

"Nope! Or is Sakura saying that I beat her?"

"No." Both boys were aware that Sakura would never say anything like that, even if it was true. There was a time where Shirou did confront Shinji about injuries on Sakura. The older Matou to beating her, saying that he did so because he felt like it, prompting the redhead to return the favor and giving him a taste of his own medicine. Their friendship, or whatever they had, became very strained after that incident.

"There you go, then," Shinji said dismissively. "It's not nice to make reckless accusations, Emiya."

Both sides simply stood there, neither blinking nor moving. This was getting nowhere, and Shirou knew it. "I suppose so," he said slowly. "I'm sorry I suspected you."

The Matou simply sneered and grunted. "If you feel bad, then do me a favor. See, the dojo's kind of a mess right now. If you have all this free time, maybe you could do something about it, Emiya?"

He was practically daring Shirou to refuse, which they both knew he wouldn't because of the redhead's nature.

"Didn't Miss Fujimura tell you to do that, Shinji?" one of the girls questioned. "If you don't do it yourself, then she'll get mad at you."

"It'll be fine," Shinji passed off. "Besides, if I start cleaning now, the shop will be closed by the time I finish."

The two girls glanced at each other, torn on whether they should go on their outing or have Shinji do the task a teacher had asked him to do. Unfortunately, Shinji had plans of his own and began walking away, prompting the girls to follow him.

"I know I can count on you, Emiya!" the Matou cried out with a passive wave.

One of the girls glanced at Shirou and apologized for the vice-captain's actions while also thanking the redhead in advance.

Seeing that Shinji forced his hand, Shirou let out a heavy sigh and began heading towards the dojo to clean it. Someone had to do it after all. He soon exited the main school building and was nearing the archery dojo when he suddenly heard a voice.

_Learn to trust your instincts, boy. They can be the difference between life and death._

The voice sounded to be from a woman, a calm and collected analysis. He looked around and saw no one else in the courtyard, puzzling him on where the voice came from. Was he just imagining things again? Then again, he thought that way about that mysterious black-haired student, but Sakura had seen him too. His thoughts were interrupted as he felt a nudge on his shoulder.

Shirou turned over to his right and saw a man with messy white hair with multicolored tips that fell to his knees and purple eyes. He wore a white hoodie, a black polo shirt underneath, blue jeans, and black leather boots. He also wore strange flower earrings that shared the same color as his hair and looked to be in his late twenties.

"Excuse me, young man," the man said rather flamboyantly. "Do you know of a good way to get into New Fuyuki? I've just arrived in this city and am horribly lost."

Shirou eyes the man curiously. The stranger didn't seem all that threatening judging by his appearance, but he had a presence that felt a little… _off_. It was practically impossible to describe, almost like the man existed within a dream and would disappear the moment he would wake up. However, it was against Shirou's nature to refuse someone in need, so against his better judgement, he chose to help the stranger.

"There's a bus stop a few blocks away from here," Shirou answered as he pointed towards the Homurahara school gate. "Just turn right and go straight."

The strange man smiled in joy, but it didn't quite reach his ears. "Thank you kindly," he replied with slight bow. "I'm meeting with an old friend tonight and I don't want to be late." He began walking away only to stop after a few feet and solemnly added, "You better be careful, Shirou Emiya. This war will be different you'd ever expect."

Shirou recoiled in shock as soon as he heard the stranger say his name. He most definitely had never met this man before, and yet he knew his name despite this. That raised so many questions and put the rookie magus on edge.

"How do you know my name?!" Shirou demanded.

The man simply chuckled, as if trying to cheer himself up. "You'll find out soon," he said calmly. "Until then, farewell."

Suddenly a gale of sakura flowers blew into the courtyard, forcing Shirou to shield his face with his arms. When the gale finally stopped, the man was gone, as if he was consumed by the pink flowers. Shirou was puzzled by this but knew that whatever just happened must have been magic. That meant that the stranger was a mage, only he much more experienced.

There was no point in just standing there, so Shirou continued heading for the archery dojo to clean it in Shinji's place.

* * *

It was dark by the time Shirou finished cleaning the dojo and all of its equipment. It was empty when he had arrived since all the other students had left when club activities had ended. He had small feeling that Mitsuzuri, Sakura, and potentially Fujimura would notice that it was his handiwork and not Shinji's, but he pushed that aside.

"All done," Shirou said with pride as he set a bucket full of water down on the freshly cleaned wooden floor while admiring his work.

Suddenly a loud clash, probably metallic in nature, could be heard outside. Out of confusion, he made his way out of the dojo, following the sounds to the track field. That was where he saw them.

Within a dust cloud were two men, clashing at ridiculous speeds. The first was a blue haired man wore a deep ultramarine full body suit, gray metallic pauldrons and long metal earrings. His hair was tied back in a ponytail and was wielding a wicked red spear with both hands.

The second man was younger, likely in his late teens. He had short black hair and eyes as red as blood. He wore a black overcoat with a futuristic silver chestplate on his upper torso and collar along gold and silver trimming on the sleeves, silver fingerless gloves, a black undershirt and pants, a silver belt that had a holder for a small gun, and gold and black boots. His weapons of choice were two longswords, the right sword being black and the left an icy blue. For some reason, Shirou felt that he had seen the dual-wielder before.

"What the hell?" Shirou muttered to himself, his eyes widened in both fear and amazement. "Who are those guys?"

The blue haired man thrusted his spear at the swordsman, who repelled the attack with an upward slash from his right sword. He then retaliated with a spinning slash from his left sword, aiming for the spearman's lower chest, only for the spearman to roll out of the way.

As the two continued their battle, Shirou found himself floored on what he should do. His breathing became ragged as he unconsciously took a step backward. There was a great pressure in the air, as if electricity was flowing everywhere. It made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up.

"Who's there?!" the man in blue shouted. He suddenly turned around, his red eyes looking straight at Shirou.

Terror instantly overwhelmed him, prompting Shirou to turn and flee. Adrenaline coursed through his system, allowing him to run faster. He didn't understand what was happening, but he knew that he had to get away.

He bolted into the main building, intending to use his knowledge of school layout to shake off his pursuer. His shoes squeaked on the hard floor as he hurried past the entrance lockers and towards the stairs. He heard a rush of air from behind, prompting him to run even faster.

Shirou rushed to second floor before going down a hallway of classrooms. The rush of air returned, prompting him to scream in terror as he turned while raising his arms in defense. The sudden turn caused him to lose his footing and topple onto the floor. He quickly recovered and shot into an upright position, the fear of death overwhelming his mind.

However, the hallway was empty, with no one else present. It closely resembled the times he saw that strange student and heard that invisible voice. Despite the halls being empty, Shirou maintained his instinct to flee and slid backward a bit before rising to his feet.

He let out a pant in exhaustion. He wasn't out of shape, in fact he was far from it, but his fear and adrenaline had pushed his body further than expected.

"Yo," a voice said casually, sounding masculine. Shirou let out a gasp as he spun around just as something cold and metallic stabbed into his upper chest.

A red spear materialized into the air, followed by its blue armored wielder that he had seen earlier. Just how was this person able to sneak up on him like that? For some reason, it reminded him of that purple haired figure that seemingly vanished outside his house.

The spearman emotionlessly pulled out his spear from Shirou's body, causing the boy to fall limply to the floor like a puppet being severed from its strings, face first. A torrent of blood poured out from his open wound, pooling around him as his severed heart struggled to keep beating.

"Today just wasn't your lucky day, kid," the man said, almost sounding disgusted at what he had just done. "Now that you've seen me, you have to die. Dead men tell no tales after all." He let out a deep breath while a bestial howl echoed in the hall. "Sounds like Archer and his Master are closing in. Whatever they're planning, they're too late. I guess I'll have to settle things with him another time."

He then vanished into the air, as Shirou's vision kept fading and returning. He couldn't process what was happening around him anymore, save for brief moments. Someone turned him over on his back. Kneeling beside him was a figure with a red coat while a figure in black was leaning on the wall opposite of him.

"Is there a way to save him?" the figure in black questioned, the voice sounding male.

"Yes," the red figure, who was a girl, replied before pulling out a small object. "I can use this to reconstruct his heart."

"I see. I'd offer to help, but I'm not great at using healing magic. I'll leave this to you."

The last thing Shirou saw before his vision went black was a red, heart-shaped pendant that glittered in the moonlight.

* * *

When Shirou awoke at last, he felt a surge of pain from his chest, but it wasn't as bad as he would have expected. The pain was still agonizing, but it was something he could manage.

"What happened to me?" Shirou thought aloud as he rolled over and got on his knees.

The pool of blood was gone, with only the bloodstain on his jacket being the only trace of his injury. He tried to stand, but his body was still weak, causing him to fall on his hands and knees again.

A glimmer of light appeared in the corner of his vision, its source coming from a red pendant that was just lying near him, its owner having abandoned it. Whoever left it behind, he felt that they had used it to save his life, something that he would be eternally grateful for. He grabbed the pendant and pocketed it before making his way home. Unbeknownst to him, a small black hawk began following him as soon as he was outside, maintaining enough distance to not be noticed but close enough to observe him.

Shirou didn't relax until he was in his living room, safe within the confines of his house. He began going over what he had witnessed earlier this night as he sat down. He had seen to figures, one blue and one black, fighting each other on the school grounds for an unknown reason. He was almost killed by one of them, no, he _was_ killed by one of them. Someone had brought him back from the dead. He wished he knew who person was so he could thank them.

His thoughts were interrupted as he felt a pulse of power course through him. A mystic alarm, a sign that someone has triggered the bounded field around the house with the intent to kill. He also heard the cry of a bird, as if the creature was trying to warn him of the danger.

The bounded field that his father, Kiritsugu Emiya, had set up around his house was simple yet clever. The field only did one thing, and only under a specific circumstance. It allowed anyone to enter, but it would alert the owner if they had any malicious intent. That wasn't very helpful besides giving the owner a few seconds to react to the danger.

Thankfully those few seconds were what allowed Shirou to avoid dying twice in the same night. The warning came to him, followed by a rush of adrenaline. The bells that were hidden within the roofing of the house let out a chime. Shirou began moving right as the spearman that had killed him before materialized on the ceiling and dropped, the redhead narrowly avoiding the spear.

Shirou's dodge wasn't perfect though, as he flipped over the low table, only to land in a heap on the other side and colliding with the wall, head-first. He let out a brief groan in pain before noticing the rolled posters that Fuji-nee had left behind. He quickly grabbed one and rose to his feet, facing the intruder while holding the poster like a two-handed sword. Unfortunately, the poster he had picked up wasn't the sheet metal one she had whacked him on the head with yesterday.

The spearman rested his weapon on his right shoulder, a smirk plastered on his face. "Oh well," he said passively. "I was trying to be considerate, figuring it'd hurt more if you saw it coming."

Fear threatened to overwhelm the redhead, but this time he refused to let it overwhelm him again.

"Stuck with killing the same person twice in one day," the man added while readying his weapon. "I guess the human world is a bloody place, whatever the era."

Shirou was confused on what the spearman meant by era, but quickly pushed that aside. Now was the time for action, not questions. "Trace on," he said. Mana began flowing from his body into the poster, reinforcing its physical structure to allow it to handle heavy strikes.

However, Shirou knew that because of his lacking skills in magecraft, this wouldn't last a drawn-out fight. Real mages are capable of pulling off impressive feats with different kinds of magic. Shirou had started his magecraft training with _that magic_ , but switched to reinforcement magic at Kiritsugu's suggestion, who said that it was more useful.

Reinforcement, otherwise known as strengthening magic, the magic that Shirou practiced for years, was all about improving objects and materials, making them stronger and more efficient than before. This was what was happening to the poster in his hands.

The blue haired man looked curious for a second, surprised by the light running along the poster. He smiled at that. "Find your way to the other side this time, kid."

"Strengthening component materials," Shirou muttered, causing the light to become more intense as his magic fulfilled his command. The spearman lunged forward, which Shirou intercepted with his poster, albeit imperfectly. He was able to block the majority of the blow, but the spearhead did manage to cut his right arm a little.

The older man lowered his spear, looking a little surprised. "Wow," he commented. "What an odd style."

Shirou didn't answer and instead took a step back to attempt to fix his stance. He had removed his left hand from the poster to put pressure on his cut in an attempt to stop the bleeding.

"It's faint, but I sense mana within you," he added, getting into another stance. "So that's why you're still alive after your heart was skewered." Shirou took another step backward to get some more distance between them. "This might be fun, after all."

The spearman surged forward into a series of rapid strikes that Shirou was barely able to block. His final strike managed to catch the redhead by surprise with the shaft of the spear hitting Shirou in the waist, sending the boy flying into the hall. Shirou hit the corner and quickly recovered and ran down the hall, away from the intruder. He then jumped out the window, shattering the glass, to get into the yard by the shed to get some more space for better movement.

He landed on his hands and knees, his body screaming in pain. He didn't get a chance to recover as the spearman delivered a swift kick to his ribs, sending Shirou flying in the air, right towards his shed. The sheer power contained within that blow practically confirmed that his opponent wasn't human. No human possessed that amount of strength.

"I gave you a chance, but you went and wasted it," the man said disappointedly as Shirou struggled to his feet.

Struggling to think of what to do, Shirou bolted into the shed. As he did so, he heard that same rush of air from before. Out of pure instinct, he turned around and unrolled the poster to act as a makeshift shield. He may have strengthened the basic structure of the poster, but it was still paper, so it could still act the same way normal paper could.

The poster was able to absorb the impact of the spear's thrust, but it couldn't handle the full power of the attack, causing the paper to shatter into scraps. The impact also knocked Shirou to the ground.

"Checkmate," the spearman declared. "That last move was pretty surprising, kid." He sounded genuinely impressed, albeit slightly. "I don't get it, though. You think fast on your feet, but you're hopeless at magecraft. You do seem to have a knack for it. Maybe you were meant to be the seventh Master." He readied his spear for one final attack. "Well, even if you were, this is the end for you."

Despite how hopeless the situation seemed, Shirou refused to die like this as he forced himself to stand.

"Screw this," he said firmly as he locked his gaze at his would-be killer. Unbeknownst to him, a magic circle nearby began glowing with a faint light. "My life was saved. My life was saved, so I won't die that easily. I need to live, to fulfill my duties. I can't do that if I'm dead." He made a fist with his left hand, the bruise on it glowing with red light as it began taking three distinct shapes while Lancer thrusted his spear forward. "I'm not going to be killed in a place like this, for no good reason, by a guy like you, who kills like it's nothing!"

Deep within Shirou's body, a powerful artifact stirred within him. It called out to a certain white and gold holy sword, and its master. A burst of blue light ignited from the shed, the source being the magic circle. Lancer halted his attack and turned his head in surprise.

"The seventh Servant is here?!" he shouted in shock before being knocked into the yard by a powerful blow.

A new person was in the shed now. They were a woman dressed in an armor-plated blue battledress. She had blonde hair tied back in a bun with a blue ribbon, her bangs framing her face and was wielding a weapon sheathed in air.

"I ask you," the new arrival spoke, her voice sounding both regal and commanding. "Are you worthy to be my Master?" She turned towards him, her jade green eyes deadly serious, almost analyzing him. She didn't look much older than him, but the sheer presence she had was of someone much older and more powerful.

Shirou just sat there, awestruck by the woman's beauty, the moonlight reflecting off her armor. Words could not come to him. "Your…Master?" he finally said, completely confused.

"I am your Servant, Saber," she answered firmly. "I have come in response to your summons. Master, your orders?"

He didn't get the chance to process this as he grabbed his left wrist, pain flashing from the back of his hand. Meanwhile the woman, Saber, turned towards the exit, eyeing her fellow Servant.

"Henceforth, my sword will be at your side," she continued. "Your fate is now my fate."

She then launched herself out of the shed, heading straight for Lancer.

"Wait!" Shirou called out as he got to his feet. "What do you mean by 'pact'?"

Saber began engaging the spearman in battle, with Shirou forced to watch helplessly. Lancer swung his spear in a horizontal arc, only for Saber to repel it with her invisible weapon. She raised her weapon overhead and swung it down, intending to cleave her opponent in two, but the spearman deflected it with a diagonal swing of his lance. The two Servants then backed off from each other, each of them holding their weapons in defense positions.

A moment of silence past before the Servants unleashed a series of rapid attacks, their movements mere blurs in Shirou's eyes. After a few second, Saber managed to overpower her opponent and knock him back with a powerful horizontal slash. He wasn't injured by any means, but he spun to recover before charging again.

Lance thrusted his spear forward, only for Saber to evade and knock his spear away with an upward swing from her sword. The impact behind the swing made a small crater in the ground and sent clumps of earth everywhere. The spearman was getting frustrated at his struggle to land a single blow and being forced to go on the defensive as he had to keep evading Saber's attacks.

The two entered another series of high-speed clashes, with Lancer being pushed back with every attack from Saber. Luckily for him, he was able to block every single attack from the invisible sword with his cursed spear. It was difficult to do since he didn't know the weapon's length thanks to it being concealed behind a sheath of invisible air. That lack of information made it difficult for him to plan out his attacks, but there were perks on playing defensively.

Saber delivered a powerful spinning slash to her opponent, who blocked it with his spear. Their weapons remained locked for a moment before Lancer managed to leap back to gain some distance.

"Coward!" he said in frustration. "What's the meaning of this, concealing your weapon?!"

Saber rushed forward and swung her sword in reply, but Lancer leapt over her to evade and regain the distance between them.

"What's the matter, Lancer?" Saber questioned confidently, as if trying to goad him into attacking. "If you stand there, you'll give spearmen a bad name. If you won't come to me, I shall come to you."

"Before you do, let me ask you one thing. Your Noble Phantasm… Is it a sword?"

"Who can say?" Saber said with a knowing smirk. "It may be a battle axe, or perhaps a polearm. Or it could even be a bow, Lancer."

"Hmph. Very funny, swordswoman!" he replied while twirling his weapon into a new stance. "Almost reminds me of _that_ guy I fought earlier."

"That stance," Shirou said in surprise. He had seen that stance before. It was the stance Lancer was in at the end of his fight with the black-garbed swordsman. What was the spearman planning?

"One more question," Lancer continued. "Since this is our first meeting, would you be interested in calling it a draw?"

"I think not," Saber replied instantly. "You will fall here, Lancer."

Lancer looked a little disappointed at that. "Is that so? My objective was simply to observe." Crimson light shot out from the spear tip and quickly enveloped the rest of the weapon. Saber, on the other hand, braced herself for the coming strike.

"I'll have your heart!" he declared, his eyes deadly serious. He surged forward, thrusting his spear, and shouted, "Gae Bolg!"

A jagged beam of crimson light shot out from the spear's tip and quickly made its way to the swordswoman. Suddenly Saber shifted her position, out of pure instinct, and having the beam strike her side. Her armor was damaged from the blow and there was a small gash that drew blood, but it didn't look fatal. Saber did however fall to one knee as she clutched her wound with her left hand.

Lancer gritted his teeth in anger. "So you dodged my lethal strike, Saber," he said.

"A curse?" Saber questioned as she felt the terrible ache from her wound. "No, a strike that reverses cause and effect?" She raised her gaze to her opponent, who just stood there. "Gae Bolg. You are Ireland's Child of Light!"

The spearman let out a grunt, all his previous aggression quickly fading. "You're the second person tonight to recognize my spear, except the other guy did so without me even using my Noble Phantasm."

Saber's eyes widened in shock, not expecting such a strange remark. "What?" she cried out. "But how can that be?"

Lancer simply shrugged in response. "Beats me," he answered simply. "He acted like he knew me, but I have no recollection of meeting him prior to tonight. I was attempting to learn his True Name until your Master rudely interrupted and forced my hand." He released a heavy sigh. "Anyway, I messed up. It needs to be fatal whenever I use that move or I'm in trouble." He began to walk away, heading right for the edge of the property. "My Master is a coward, you see. You dodged my spear, so he's ordering me home."

"You would run?!" Saber asked in frustration.

"You're more than welcome to follow," Lancer replied before tossing her a serious glance. "But if you do, be prepared to die!"

He leapt onto the roof before making his retreat into the night.

"Wait, Lancer!" Saber shouted as she rose to her feet, her left hand still clutching her wound.

"I-is she an idiot or something?" Shirou questioned himself before hurrying towards his Servant. "Hey, are you okay?" As he spoke, Saber's armor repaired itself using her mana, but the wound itself remained. "What the hell are you?"

"As you can see, I am your Saber-class Servant," she answered as she turned to face him. She then smiled. "As such, please call me Saber."

Shirou found himself blushing at the sight before saying, "I'm Shirou. Shirou Emiya."

Once again, Saber looked surprised. "Emiya?" She didn't think she'd hear that name again.

"This house…" Shirou stopped himself as he rubbed the back of his neck. "No, that's not right. That isn't what I want to ask you."

"I know. You are not a proper Master, are you? And yet, regardless, you are my Master."

"W-wait, isn't it weird to call me 'Master' all of a sudden?"

"Then I shall call you Shirou then," she replied passively. "Yes, the sound of that is pleasing to me." She turned towards the house. It was slightly damaged, likely from Shirou and Lancer's battle prior to her summoning, but overall it looked the same as it was ten years ago.

Shirou then found himself looking at his hand, where he noticed three strange red marks on the back of his left hand. "Wh-what are these?" he asked in confusion.

"Those are Command Seals," Saber answered. "Try to avoid using them carelessly." Suddenly she glanced in a certain direction as she sensed something approach. "Shirou, please heal me…"

"You're asking me? Sorry, but complicated magic like that's beyond me."

"Then I will face them in my current condition," Saber replied and leapt onto the roof of the house. "There are two enemies outside. One more battle shouldn't be a problem."

"What do you mean by enemies outside?!" Shirou demanded.

His Servant didn't answer as she hurried to the other side to do battle with the opponents quickly approaching. Shirou had no choice but to run after her. When he exited the property, he saw Saber was engaged in combat with the same, black-garbed Servant from before.

* * *

It was times like this that Marth really cursed his luck, or would it be better if he blamed _that_ instead, as he struggled to repel his opponent's powerful attacks with his swords. Out of all the potential people who could be summoned as Servants, why was he fighting _her_ of all people? One of the most powerful swordswomen he had ever done battle with, and one of his most trusted friends. She was one of the few who stood by him, even on the fields of death. However, just like Lancer, she didn't seem to recognize him, indicating that she originated in this world too.

He barely managed to block her invisible sword, most likely _that_ sword, with a crossblock with his swords. Just like her, this Saber was very strong, but the mana flow from her was weak, meaning that her Master couldn't provide much mana to her. He had to end this quickly without causing her to exert too much mana. He may be in participating in this Holy Grail War and was summoned in another world, but he found the idea of fighting counterparts of people he knew to the death difficult. Unfortunately, like his battle with Lancer, Marth can't afford to hold back against someone like Saber. He was summoned in an abnormal class, one that he shouldn't normally qualify for, and with so many of his powers locked away because of class restrictions, he had to be even more careful when fighting until he got used to fighting in this form.

_"Luckily I can still use_ that _,"_ Marth thought to himself. _"Please lend me your strength, Eugeo."_

Marth managed to repel Saber's attack, knocking her back a few feet. She quickly recovered and charged again, intent on finishing him off.

"Archer!" Rin shouted in worry, standing behind him. She didn't know if her Servant could take a direct blow from the most powerful Servant class. It was her fault that he was even fighting as she wasn't expecting another Servant to be here. She refused to let him die like this and readied a Command Seal.

_Don't worry about me,_ Marth said telepathically, maintaining his gaze at his fellow Servant. Masters and Servants had the power to communicate with each other telepathically, a feat made possible through their pact. _I have no intention of dying here._

"Archer," Rin muttered as she cupped her hands near her chest. She was still worried over her partner, but chose to trust in his words. She had seen him fight Lancer to a standstill, and he hadn't even brought out his true swords, or even his bow. The Tohsaka mage knew he had a few ranged weapons at his disposal, with two of them supposedly belonging to two goddesses, but she has yet to see any of them.

Saber rushed at the black Archer at high speed, the latter pointing his left sword at her in response. As soon as she was too close to dodge, that was when he unleashed the sword's power.

"Enhance Armament!" Marth cried out, his voice echoing in the air.

A strange hum came from the Blue Rose Sword before thorny vines of blue ice shot out of the blade, wrapping themselves around Saber's body. She looked alarmed by the sudden action and struggled to free herself using her raw strength, but the more vines she shattered, the more that rose to replace them. Frost was starting to creep up on her armor, the icy cold biting into her skin. It wouldn't be long before she'd be incased in ice.

"What is this?!" Saber demanded as she struggled in vain to free herself. She was completely vulnerable like this. If Archer chose to attack her now with his other sword, it would be extremely difficult for her to defend herself. Plus the ice could have other side effects that could hinder her combat abilities.

As if reading her mind, Marth answered, "Relax, Saber, it's just ice. It can't hurt you in any way. All it does is restrain you. My Master and I didn't come here to fight. If you agree to lower your weapon, I'll lower mine. Do we have an agreement?"

Saber gritted her teeth as she glared at her opponent. She didn't have much of a choice in the matter. Given how low her mana flow is with Shirou, it is too risky for her to overexert herself so early on in the war. Even using her Noble Phantasm just once could be too much.

"Saber!" her Master cried out in worry as he hurried over to her. Strangely, the ice vines didn't make a move towards him, as if their master was choosing to avoid him.

Shirou let out a gasp as he saw the Archer Servant. It was the same student he had seen yesterday. "It can't be," he said in disbelief. "Why are you here? What are you?"

Marth raised an eyebrow in confusion as he glanced at the male Master. "Have we met before?"

Before the redhead could press further, a new voice cried out, "That's enough, Archer. Release Saber now."

Rin Tohsaka emerged from behind her Servant, who had lowered his swords and canceled the Blue Rose Sword's Perfect Weapon Control art. This allowed Saber to finally break free from the ice, and readied herself to protect her Master, ignoring the shivering of her teeth. Shirou, however, tossed her a glance to stand down, which she reluctantly obeyed.

"So you are a Master too?" Rin said inquisitively before slightly bowing her head. "Well, for starters, good evening, Shirou Emiya."

Something told Shirou that this would be a long night.

**To be continued**

* * *

**And so Shirou and Rin finally meet! Not gonna lie, I was still debating on what kind of restrictions Marth would be under when he was summoned under the Archer class, but now I've got a good handle on what they will be. I can't have him be super overpowered after all. Anyway, if this chapter was any indication, I'm already including original elements into the main plot besides Marth. While this story isn't canon to the Dark Swordsman series, elements of it will be referenced.** **I also have some good news. I have decided handle Medusa's fate differently than both the Fate and UBW routes (this was inevitable given that she's my third favorite Servant in the series). What that is though, well, you'll have to wait and see. Over time, I will include Marth's Servant abilities and maybe his stats in these notes as well. Anyway, see you guys next time!**


	5. The Holy Grail War

**Okay, before we begin, let me clarify things for a guest reviewer and it involves Marth and Saber. Marth does not have, nor will gain, any feelings for Saber. The Saber/Artoria he knew was just a close friend. The endgame pairings for this story are ShirouxSaber and MarthxRin. Anyway, enjoy!**

* * *

As soon as Rin stepped inside, the first thing she noticed was how cold it was. It was as if the heat was being sapped from the house by some unseen force.

"Sheesh, it's freezing," she complained as she clutched her chest with her arms to preserve some warmth. "What happened here?"

The raven-haired mage and the others explored the Emiya household until they came across a broken window. Well, that explained the low temperature. Shirou must have broken the window to escape from Lancer, but why hasn't he repaired it yet? As a fellow Master, shouldn't he be able to do something as basic as repairing broken glass?

As if reading her mind, Shirou defensively said, "Hey, don't blame me for this. I was just trying to not get killed by Lancer."

That took Rin by surprise. "Wait. You fought him on your own until you summoned Saber?" she questioned.

Shirou let out a hesitated groan. "More like getting my butt kicked," he replied. "I couldn't even fight back, only run."

"That's no surprise," Marth spoke up. He had dismissed his swords and had his arms folded across his chest. "It would be suicide for a human to take on a Servant."

The redhead simply scratched the back of his head sheepishly before realizing something. "Why are you and Tohsaka here anyway?" he questioned. "Is it because of Lancer?"

"Correct," Marth said with a nod. He whistled in the air and the cry of a bird then followed, as well as the flapping of wings. He raised his right arm up as black hawk flew through the broken window and gracefully landed on the arm. "After Lancer killed you at the school and my Master resurrected you, I created this guy to follow you in case anything happened to you. Looks like that was the smart thing to do."

"Tohsaka was the one who saved me?" Shirou said in surprise. He turned towards the female mage, who had mended the broken window with her magic. He could easily tell that she was on a totally different level when it came to magecraft. "I guess I should thank you, Tohsaka. It's because of you that I'm still alive."

"Don't think too hard about it," Rin said dismissively, not even looking at the redhead. "That whole incident was just the wrong place at the wrong time."

Suddenly Shirou remembered the pendant he had found beside him in the Homurahara High's hallway. He reached into his pocket and pulled it out to show it to his fellow Master.

Rin's eyes widened in surprise at the sight. "You kept it?"

"Yeah. I'm guessing that this is what you used to bring me back to life. Do you want it back?"

The Tohsaka mage did feel the temptation to get the red pendant back. It was the last gift her father had left for her, as well as that broken catalyst. However, she could tell even from a short distance that all the mana in it was gone. That was what she expected. Without that mana, that pendant is practically dead-weight. The only reason she could come with for reclaiming it would just the sentimental value of it, but even then, Rin couldn't bring herself to take the pendant back.

"You can keep it, Emiya," Rin said before bringing her right hand to the wolf pendant around her neck, the purple gems gleaming in the moonlight. "That pendant doesn't have any uses for me now. I've got a new one now."

"Are you sure?"

"Positive. Anyway, there are few things we need to discuss." She tossed a glance at her Servant. "Archer, send your familiar outside to keep watch. This house could fall under another attack."

"Understood," Marth replied automatically. He went over to the door leading into the backyard and sent a telepathic command to the hawk, telling it to circle the perimeter of the property. The bird familiar let out another cry before spreading its wings and flying off.

With that out of the way, the quartet moved into the dining room and sat around the table, with Shirou and Saber on one side, and Rin and Archer on the other. Since they had agreed to stop fighting, Saber chose to dismiss her sword and armor, leaving her in only her modest blue gown.

"Now then, let's get started," Rin began. "You don't have any idea what you're caught up in, do you?" Shirou nodded in confirmation. "To be blunt, you've been chosen as a Master. Have you noticed a brand somewhere on your body?"

Shirou raised an eyebrow in confusion. "A brand?"

"She is referring to the Command Seals, Shirou," Saber spoke up, her eyes glanced at his left hand.

Getting the hint, Shirou raised his left hand and showed to the female magus. "Do you mean these?" he questioned.

"Yes. Those brand you as a Master," Rin answered. "They're also spells to control your Servant. So, as long as you have those, you can control your Servant."

"What do you mean, as long as I have them?"

"Command Seals are inviolable orders," she explained. "They force your Servant's obedience, even if it means bending them to your will. However, you only get three inviolable orders, so try not to waste them. If you use them all, you'll probably be killed, so I suggest you take care with them."

A chill ran down Shirou's spine. He felt afraid of asking his next question, but he had to say it. He needed to know what was going on and this was the best opportunity to do so.

"I'll be killed?"

Rin nodded rather nonchalantly. "That's right," she replied. "The Holy Grail War is based upon Masters defeating other Masters. The Master that beats the other six will win the Holy Grail, which can grant any wish."

"Hold on a second…What do you mean by Holy Grail?"

"To make a long story short, you've been dragged into a ritual. One called the Holy Grail War, fought by seven Masters. A battle to the death between mages."

"Do you really expect me to believe that?" Shirou retorted.

Marth chuckled in amusement as he cracked an impish smirk. "Oh, you naïve little boy," he said teasingly as he rested his face on two fingers while leaning on the table. "You know so little of how the world works. Humans never cease to amuse me."

Rin let out an annoyed grunt at her Servant's comment. They had agreed that she'd be the one to explain everything to Shirou, though she couldn't really disagree with it as he was technically right. However, she did feel a little unnerved from Marth's last sentence. She knew that he was older than he appeared, but she couldn't help but wonder what he is.

Since Heroic Spirits are people from various myths and stories, there was the possibility of non-human Servants being summoned for a Holy Grail War. Gods are impossible to summon as a regular Servant body will not be able to handle such power, but there is the potential for demigods, humans with a godly parent, to be summoned. Marth certainly had the presence of someone with divinity, but for some reason, calling him a demigod didn't feel right. Something about him felt…off, almost dark yet gentle. Just what is he?

"Anyway," Rin continued, pushes such thoughts aside. "I was also chosen to be a Master. "Think of your Servant as a familiar, which the Holy Grail granted to you to help you survive the Holy Grail War."

Shirou tossed a glance over at Saber, almost as if trying to analyze her, before doing the same to Marth. "She doesn't look like a familiar to me. Neither does yours."

"Of course not," Rin said casually. "Technically Servants are familiars, but they're actually superhuman beings. Heroes from the past."

That took the male Master by surprise. "No way," he said in disbelief. "Saber and Archer are heroes from the past?"

"She is, I'm not," Marth clarified. "Unlike Saber, I'm a hero from the modern era. This comes with some disadvantages, but we don't need to discuss that. But there is one advantage about it." He closed one eye and smirked mischievously at his fellow Servant. "Like learning my True Name."

Saber's eyes narrowed into a cold stare. "Is that a challenge, Archer?" she asked firmly. Something about the black-garbed Servant irritated her. Probably because he reminded her of a certain mage that had trained her when she was a child.

"Archer!" Rin spoke up as she tossed a fierce glare at her Servant. "Stop provoking Saber. We agreed on having no hostilities so we could get Shirou up to speed on what he's gotten himself into."

Marth's smirk disappeared, but otherwise he looked rather unfazed. "My apologizes. Saber just reminded me of someone I knew. I couldn't help myself."

That intrigued the female magus, but she pushed that trivia aside to focus on the matter at hand. "Anyway," she continued. "Servants are heroes pulled from legends, be they ancient or modern, into our time and given physical forms. It's the Master's role to summon them, and a phenomenon of the Grail manifests them afterward. Basically, a Servant is always with you in spirit form. And should the need arise, you can materialize them and make them fight."

"So you can transform them at will between spirit and physical form?" Shirou questioned, wanting to make sure he understood correctly. Once again he found himself thinking of the purple-haired figure from this morning. Could they have used a similar method to disappear like that?

"Correct," Rin said with a nod. "Anyway, do you understand everything so far?"

"The individual words, sure."

"Good. For a more detailed explanation, you'll need to go talk to the man who oversees the Holy Grail War. All I can tell you is that you have no choice but to fight and that Servants are powerful familiars, so you should use yours well." Rin then locked eyes with Saber. "Now then… From what Emiya has said, I gather that you're in an incomplete state, Saber?"

"Yes," Saber confirmed with a nod. "As you say, I am not at full fighting strength. Shirou is not a fully trained Master so even replenishing my mana will likely be difficult for him."

Rin, who had gotten up to get some tea for herself, looked at the female Servant in surprise. "That's not good."

Shirou, as expected, looked confused. "What's she talking about, Tohsaka?"

"Servants maintain their existence here with mana supplied by their Masters," she explained as she returned to the table with her tea. "But because you're a novice, she can't get mana from you, so it'll become a problem before long. However," she looked over at Saber again, "I have to admit, I didn't expect you to be so forthcoming with me."

"You had already realized something was wrong," the blonde Servant replied formally, "so there was no point to conceal it. Given that, the best course was to enlighten Shirou as to his situation, by revealing the truth to an enemy."

Marth silently observed the female Servant in skepticism. He could definitely sense a weak mana flow between her and her Master, which meant drawn out fights would be out of the question for her. Hence why he had chosen to incapacitate her with the Blue Rose Sword's ice powers rather than attack with the Night-Sky Sword's power. However, he felt that Saber was hiding something, potentially the real reason she can't dematerialize.

His thoughts were interrupted by Rin saying, "You're a woman of outstanding character, too." She then abruptly slammed her hands and cup on the table. "Damn it, what a waste! If I was Saber's Master, this war would be good as won!" She stood up in frustration and threw herself on the ground while she complained.

"Gee, I really feel appreciated there, Rin," Marth deadpanned with an annoyed stare. "Maybe I should let you fall the next time you jump off a building. Also, may I remind you that _you're_ the reason I got summoned as an Archer because you messed up _my_ summoning?"

Rin flinched in fear as she realized what she had just said, and in front of her Servant no less. She had practically said that he was worthless to her with that statement, especially since she was the reason he wasn't summoned as the Saber. Trust between a Master and Servant was vital to survive in the Holy Grail War. She can't afford to lose her Servant's trust so early.

"I'm…sorry, Archer," Rin said slowly as she glanced at her Servant. "I should have been more considerate since you're here. But Shirou isn't worthy of commanding Saber."

Thankfully, Marth's features began to relax. "Magic-wise, I can agree to that," he said with a sigh. "As for things like ideology, I think it's too early to say." Because of his "unique" summoning, some of his memories were a little jumbled, mainly ones around his time within Underworld. He remembered people like Eugeo, Alice and Edith, but there were a handful of people he couldn't remember clearly. For some reason, he felt a sense of familiarity from Shirou and that girl, Sakura was it? Did they have counterparts in his world too?

With the situation between her and her Servant seemingly diffused, Rin stood up and faced her fellow Master. "Okay, shall we go?"

"Go where?"

"To see the man who knows all about the Holy Grail War," she said matter-of-factly, as if it was obvious. "You want to know the reason behind it, don't you?"

"Of course I do," Shirou answered while looking at the clock. "But it's really late." That and he was exhausted. Dying once, being brought back to life, and nearly avoiding dying a second time really took a toll on him. Actual combat was way more exhausting than any exercises he's ever done.

"What?" Rin said with a raised eyebrow. "You won't go?" She brushed her long hair with one hand before eyeing the swordswoman. "What about you, Saber?"

For some reason, that irritated Shirou as he stood up quickly. "Leave Saber out of this!" he nearly shouted. "Don't try to strong-arm her."

"Ooh," Rin said with false surprise, her hand raised to her mouth. "So you do think like a Master." Both her tone and face took on a more mischievous side. "You don't want me talking to Saber?"

Surprisingly, Marth decided to pitch in, a smug grin plastered on his face. "You wouldn't be jealous of Rin spending time with Saber, would you, boy?" he said humorously. "Do you already have a crush on your Servant or something?"

Shirou's face went red with embarrassment while Saber looked seemingly unfazed. "O-of course not," Shirou stuttered out, though he couldn't deny that he did find the swordswoman to be beautiful. But if he revealed that, there's no doubt that the crazy duo in front of him would relentlessly tease him for it. "A-anyway, unlike Archer, Saber's a hero from the past, right? So she won't be able to make sense of the modern world."

"That isn't true, Shirou," Saber spoke up. "Servants adapt to whatever era they find themselves in. As such, I am quite familiar with this time."

"You're familiar with it? Really?"

Saber nodded in confirmation. "Of course. This is not the first time I have been summoned to this era."

That caught both Rin and Marth by surprise. It was certainly interesting that the novice Master had managed to summon a Servant that had been summoned in the modern era before.

Saber then rose to her feet. "Well? Where are we going?"

"The church in New Fuyuki," Rin answered. "Archer, has anything changed outside?"

Marth was silent for a moment as he looked through his familiar's eyes. "Nope. We're all clear." Suddenly his clothing changed into a black leather jacket, a red undershirt, as well as black pants and leather boots. Noticing the confused expressions from his peers, he added, "What? Just because I can dematerialize doesn't mean I have to constantly use it whenever I'm not fighting. You two should do the same. Even at this hour, walking around with bloodstained clothes and a suit of armor is bound to attract attention."

* * *

Rin and Marth waited outside the Emiya household, with the Servant leaning against the outer wall with his arms folded across his chest. They soon heard the door open and watched Shirou and Saber approach them. Shirou had changed into a black and white jacket, a t-shirt and jeans, while Saber…was simply wearing a yellow raincoat over her armor.

"When I said for you to change, I meant putting a different set of clothes on, Saber," Marth deadpanned. "Wearing a raincoat on a clear night is just as suspicious as wearing a suit of armor."

"This coat covers my armor," Saber replied. "Plus you and Rin wear long coats as well."

Marth let out a groan as he pinched the bridge of his nose. "That's not the point. Just my luck, you're as oblivious as her." That last sentence seemed more for himself than to Saber.

Seeing that Saber wasn't likely to change her mind, the quartet began making their way to New Fuyuki. Thankfully the streets were empty, likely because of how late it was. However, Marth did feel that they were being watched, but it didn't feel malicious. In fact, it felt very familiar to him.

"Are we seriously going to be walking all the way to New Fuyuki?" Shirou questioned, interrupting the Archer's thoughts.

"Of course," Rin answered casually. "Archer can fly but there's no way he can carry all of us without burning through a lot of his mana. Besides, a little walk can't hurt you."

"True, but the streets have been dangerous as of late. Haven't you heard about all the murders that have been happening? If something bad happens, I won't be able to protect you and Saber."

Immediately after the redhead finished talking, Marth suddenly burst out laughing, with him clutching his stomach with one hand. "Hahahaha! You…protect Saber… That's rich! Haha!"

"What do you mean?" Shirou asked in confusion, clearly confused on what the swordsman found so amusing.

After a few moments, Archer finally managed to calm down enough to speak in full sentences. "Saber's a Servant, a crippled Servant maybe, but a Servant nonetheless," he explained. "If we got attacked by a regular human, she'd be more than a match for them even in her current state. Plus you're forgetting about me also being a Servant and that Rin is a gifted mage. I think we don't need to worry about protection."

"Couldn't have put it better myself, Archer," Rin said in agreement, a proud smile plastered on her face.

"Master of Archer," Saber began as they continued walking.

"Just call me Rin."

"Very well. Rin, what was Shirou trying to say about protection?"

"Oh nothing," Rin passed off before sarcastically adding as they crossed a walkway beneath a large red metal bridge, "Just him saying that if we get attacked along the way, he'll jump in and save us like a hero."

"But that's wrong. Shirou is my Master. I should be protecting _him_."

"That's probably not what he's thinking about," Rin said mischievously. "When it comes to Masters and Servants, Shirou doesn't seem to understand anything."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Shirou questioned, almost sounding offended.

Rin didn't answer as she simply giggled before returning to her Servant's side while continuing their midnight walk.

* * *

They arrived at the Kotomine Church with no problem. However, when they approached the gate, Marth suddenly tensed up and unconsciously reached for his sword, only to grab empty air instead. There was a darkness lurking within that building, and it made him feel uneasy. This was no gentle darkness like him and his family, but a malevolent one that sought to corrupt anything it touched, something that was akin to the Earthbound Immortals and the dark beasts.

"Rin, are you sure this place is safe?" Marth asked in suspicion.

"Of course," his Master answered. "The church is neutral ground so other Servants shouldn't attack us there. Why do you ask?"

Marth paused for a moment as he collected his thoughts. "There's something off about this place," he replied finally. "I'll keep watch outside, but call me as soon as you get into trouble."

"I'll join you," Saber added almost hastily. "I didn't want to go inside anyway."

Both Masters didn't say anything and walked past the gate to enter the church. Both Servants, on the other hand, stood adjacent to each other, the gate's length being the distance between them.

"You say that there's something off about this place," Saber spoke up. "What did you mean by that?"

The Dark Swordsman let out hesitant grunt as he debated whether to answer or not. "I can't give a straight answer since I don't understand it myself," Marth said carefully. "But this church doesn't feel right. There's something lurking in there."

"Is it a Servant?" Saber pressed further. She needed to know if her Master was in danger or not.

"I don't know. But I hope that Rin and Shirou don't spend too long in there. The sooner we leave, the better."

Saber found herself agreeing with her fellow Servant before falling silent as they kept vigil for any possible enemies.

* * *

Rin was not happy with coming to this place. If there was one person she couldn't stand, it was the fake priest Kirei Kotomine. He was her father's pupil during the Fourth Holy Grail War ten years ago, making him her senior disciple. When her father died and her mother becoming…incapacitated before finally following her husband, the priest became Rin's legal guardian and her mentor. Had Shirou not joined the Holy Grail War, then she would not be anywhere near this church.

_"Still, why would Archer say that something was wrong with this place?"_ Rin pondered as she led the novice Master through the church. _"Kirei may be a fake priest, but there shouldn't be anything dark lurking within this building. It's supposed to be neutral territory after all."_

_You would be wise to head my champion's advice,_ a female voice spoke up from within the mage's mind. It sounded ancient and powerful, yet serene. _His instincts have rarely led him wrong._

Rin let out a gasp in surprise and immediately looked around the immediate area to find the source. However, Shirou was the only person around and he didn't look like he heard anything. Could that have been a Servant talking to her via telepathy? That couldn't be. Why would an enemy Servant give her advice, not to mention that each word the voice said felt like it was full of a divine power. This is a rather bizarre Holy Grail War.

The two Masters finally arrived at the worship area of the church. The room was dark, the only source of light being moonlight coming from the windows located on the left-side wall. The pews were arranged in four columns all the way down with an aisle separating them from the center. The room was held up by several pillars, which supported the upper floor.

At the end of the center aisle was an altar where a priest stood. He was tall and had dark brown hair that fell to the collar of his clerical jacket.

"You've never accepted my repeated invitations," the priest spoke up as the duo entered, not even turning around. "And now here you are with an unusual guest." He set down a bible that he was holding before turning to face the new arrivals. As expected, he was also wearing a dark clerical shirt and pants, as well as a cross around his neck. "I take it that this means that he is the seventh, Rin." He smiled as he said the girl's name.

_Watch yourself around that man,_ the female voice advised to the female Master. _There is something unnatural about him. Head my champion's advice and keep this visit brief._

_Who are you?_ Rin questioned intently, trying her hardest not to flinch. _How are you talking to me?_

The voice simply laughed. _You will find out in due time. Just know that I am on your side, or rather, Marth's side._

On Marth's side? That just left more questions. Hopefully Archer can answer them after this. Pushing the thought aside, Rin folded her arms and simply observed quietly.

"I am Kirei Kotomine," the priest introduced calmly. "What is your name, seventh Master?"

"Shirou Emiya."

"Emiya?" Kirei questioned. Now that wasn't a name he wasn't expecting to hear again. His mind flashed back to ten years ago when he did battle with a certain mage before dismissing it with a chuckle. "Then I assume that you are the Master of the Saber class, Shirou Emiya?"

Shirou nodded his head in confirmation. "Yeah, I made a pact with Saber," he answered. "But this stuff about Masters and the Holy Grail War is all nonsense to me. If a Master is supposed to be a proper mage, you really ought to pick someone else."

The false priest closed his eyes for a moment as he processed the boy's words. "I see. This is serious, indeed."

"You'll need to start from square one with him," Rin spoke up.

"Very well. This is the first time you have ever sought my assistance." Kirei began making his approach towards the two teens. "Shirou Emiya. The status of Master cannot be yielded to another. And once conferred, it is not a thing from which one walks away. Being a Master is a trial you have been chosen to undergo. Until you win the Grail, you will not be freed from that ordeal. Now listen carefully. This battle you find yourself caught up in is called the Holy Grail War."

"A crazy thing where seven Masters fight to the death, right?" Shirou questioned, venom laced in his tone.

Kirei nodded in acknowledgement. "It is a ritual meant to select the one who is worthy to hold the Grail." He then turned and began walking towards the left side of the room.

"You keep talking about this Holy Grail, but you don't mean the actual Holy Grail, right?"

"The Grail that appears in this town is indeed the genuine article," the priest answered plainly. "For proof, one would only need to look no further than the unrivaled miracle of the Servants. A Holy Grail capable of this can surely grant its holder limitless power. In the face of such a fact, the item's authenticity is irrelevant."

"Then why force people to go through this Holy Grail War thing?" Shirou asked. "If its that powerful, why not just share it?"

"A fair opinion, but only one may claim the Grail. We did not make that decision, but rather, the Grail itself decided it."

Shirou's eyes widened in complete surprise at the revelation. "The Grail decided it?"

"This is all the work of the Grail itself," Kirei continued as he was illuminated by the moonlight. "It selects its one true owner by having the Masters fight to win it. That is the Holy Grail War."

Shirou just stood there in silence as he processed everything that he was told. He then found himself looking at the Command Seals on the back of his hand, the ultimate power over a Servant. It felt unbelievable but the existence of Saber and Archer made it hard to deny. However, there was one pressing issue. "I'm still not convinced. Even if only one can be chosen, I don't like the idea that that person has to kill the other Masters."

"Hold on, Emiya," Rin said suddenly. "We don't actually have to kill each other."

"It is a fight to the death," Kirei said plainly.

Rin glanced over at her guardian, anger rising off of her. "Hush, Kirei!" she retorted before turning back to the novice mage. "The Holy Grail that appears in this city is a spiritual object. If it's intangible, we can't touch it. Do you see the implication?" It took Shirou a few seconds to catch on, his face etched in surprise. "Right. The point of the Holy Grail War is to get rid of all the other Masters' Servants. There is no rule that you have to kill the other Masters."

"So I just have to focus on the other Servants," Shirou concluded. "Okay, it's starting to make sense. If my Servant is the only one left, then nothing can stop her from obtaining the Grail."

"Exactly," the female magus confirmed. "Once you kill a Servant, there's no reason to kill their Master as well."

"Okay, but why didn't you two just tell me that in the first place?" he asked in confusion.

"Let me ask you something, Shirou Emiya," Kirei spoke up. "Do you think you have the ability to defeat your own Servant? Servants are quite powerful. It's hard for even other Servants to defeat them, much less an ordinary Master. But Servants can't exist without a Master. Which means…"

"The easiest way to kill a Servant is to kill their Master," Shirou said grimly. Just the thought of taking a person's life made him feel ill. Why did the Holy Grail choose someone like him to be a Master?

"Yes, but a Servant doesn't immediately disappear if their Master is dead," Rin explained. "Another Master with Command Seals can form a new pact with them. A Master who has lost their Servant, allowing them both to rejoin the battle. Plus there are Servants who possess the Independent Action skill, which grants them a pool of mana to draw from if their Master can't supply any. That particular skill is commonly found in the Archer class, though there are Servants from different classes who can have it."

Shirou couldn't help but groan. This Holy Grail War is a lot more complicated than he thought. He decided to brush that part aside for now to continue his questioning. "Then what happens if you use up all your Command Seals? Wouldn't that set your Servant free and allow them to make a pact with a different Master?"

"That's entirely plausible," Kirei answered as he made his way back to the duo. "If you use up all your Command Seals, then you are relieved from your duties as a Master. Although I can't imagine a mage using magic as powerful as a Command Seal in such a wasteful manner. If there were such a mage, they would be less than a novice, and merely a coward."

Well that was certainly a low blow. Shirou could only growl in frustration, which only amused the fake priest. "But if that should happen to you," Kirei continued, "I'll personally guarantee your safety. That is my responsibility as supervisor of these wars and I will do my best to uphold my position. This is the fifth time the Holy Grail War has happened here in our fair city. The last one was ten years ago."

"Wait, what?!" Shirou shouted in outrage. "Are you people insane? This has happened before?!"

"In the past, the Holy Grail Wars grew to become incredibly brutal. Masters became driven only by their desires and they began to butcher one another indiscriminately. Because of that, the Council of Mages selected an Overseer at the beginning of the Third War and that man happened to be my father. I have since inherited that position."

"Wow," Shirou said, feeling stunned once again. "Sounds like the Holy Grail War tends to bring the ugly side out of people. I mean, the earlier Masters were willing to break the rules of the magi to get what they wanted, right? Just imagine if someone like that managed to get the Grail. It would be nothing short of a huge disaster."

Kirei simply turned over towards the altar and said, "It matters not what kind of person manages to obtain the Holy Grail. The Council of Mages will not interfere. Our only role is to make sure the rules of war continue to be followed. If you take issue with that, then become the victor. After all, relying on others can sometimes be incredibly inefficient."

Shirou clenched his teeth in anger. "Don't tell me what to do!" he snapped. "I've got no interest in this stupid war of yours. It's got absolutely nothing to do with me!"

The false priest turned and cracked a chilling smile. "So you're telling me that you don't care," he said almost goadingly. "Even if someone unfit to possess the Grail should win. Knowing that they can cause great harm to others and that none of these facts have peaked your interest, especially about what happened ten years ago."

Ten years ago? That was when that big fire happened in Fuyuki. Hold on, Kirei said that the last Holy Grail War happened around the same time. Shirou's blood suddenly ran cold as he put the pieces together.

"It seems you finally understand," the false priest said. "Ten years ago, around the end of the war, an unfit Master managed to touch the Grail. We do not know what they were trying to achieve but we are all familiar with the atrocity that came from it. They say that the cause of that fire is unknown, but it is actually a scar left by the last Holy Grail War."

Words couldn't come to Shirou as he was left shellshocked. That terrible fire that haunted his dreams even now. Hundreds, if not thousands of people lost their lives in those flames, including his family. Heck, Shirou couldn't even remember their faces or names. He didn't even know how he managed to survive such an ordeal. Even now there are parts of Fuyuki that haven't fully recovered from the disaster. It was like Kirei said, a scar.

_"All that death and destruction from a single wish by the Grail?"_ Shirou thought in horror. Bracing himself, he added, "What was the outcome of the last war."

"There wasn't one," the Overseer said plainly. "Like I said, the Grail was touched by someone unworthy. The war ended because of that. But before him, there was another man who touched it. But you see that man had done his best to avoid fighting and so the Grail would not completely materialize. When all seven Servants have gathered, the Grail will then appear and begin to materialize. But remember, this man chose not to fight, so the Grail refused to acknowledge him as its rightful owner."

"Unfortunately, he's right," Rin said reluctantly with a shrug. "Therefore any strategy that tries to avoid confrontation with the other Masters is essentially pointless. This guy Kirei is talking about is basically a coward."

_"Wait a second,"_ Shirou realized. _"The way this guy talks about the war sounds way too personal. It couldn't be."_ He then said, "You were that Master, weren't you?!"

"About halfway through the war, I had lost my Servant," Kirei replied. "Because of that, I quit. I then came to my father and asked for protection." He then turned around. "That's all I wish to say of the matter." He began making his way to the altar and rested on hand on the wood. "Without a Servant, a Master is no longer qualified to win the Grail. When the tournament reduces all seven of you down to just one, the Grail will then reveal itself to the victor."

The priest's gaze became serious as he focused on the redhead. "I will ask you again. This is your last chance, Shirou Emiya. It is time decide whether or not you will fight as a Master in this Holy Grail War."

Shirou was stumped on what to do. He could participate a sort of counter force if any Master tried anything extreme. Rin herself said that you didn't even have to kill the other Masters. If he played his cards right, he could make sure no one unworthy could get their hands on it. However, he was keenly aware of how much danger he would be in. He had already been killed once because of this war and nearly died a second time in just one night. If he agrees to this, then there runs the possibility that his home will fall under attack again, and without the restraint that Archer showed Saber.

"Well?" Kirei repeated.

Deep down, Shirou knew that there was only one choice for him to make. He knew it wasn't going to be easy, but he'll find a way to protect everyone. That is his dream after all. To become a hero of justice.

"I'll do it. I'll join the Holy Grail War."

**To be continued**

* * *

**And so Shirou decides to stay as a Master. I was hoping to get to the Berserker fight, but those hopes weren't that high since this explanation of the Holy Grail War takes up an entire episode. This just felt like a good stopping point. Anyway, sorry for the late upload. Video games have been occupying my time as of late, plus I had writer's block for a while. Next chapter will be the Berserker fight and oh boy, I can finally show off more of Marth's abilities. Look forward to that. See you guys next time!**


	6. Berserker Unleashed

It was relatively quiet outside the Kotomine Church, however Marth still felt uneasy. That dark presence he felt lurking within the building behind him was still there, but he hasn't detected any movement from it. How long that would last was unknown and the Archer didn't want to take any chances. He even had half a mind to go after Rin and get her and Shirou as far away from here as possible. At the moment, though, he was just leaning against the stone wall with his arms folded across his chest.

_I see that death hasn't dulled your instincts. As expected from my favorite champion._

The voice didn't come from the surrounding area, instead it was heard directly from the Archer's mind. He didn't find it surprising that he would eventually hear _her_ voice while he was here in this world. It actually brought him some comfort.

 _"I figured you'd reach out to me eventually,"_ Marth thought to himself. _"Telepathic communication between worlds is relatively simple work for a primordial goddess. I'm guessing my summoning here is your work, Lady Sinestra?"_

The Goddess of Shadows simply laughed heartily. _In a way, yes,_ she confirmed. _There is no way that I would allow the Holy Grail to summon my champions to fight in this war without my consent. That goes especially for you, my child. You have given much and fought valiantly during your long life. If_ he _hadn't convinced me otherwise, I would have let you continue your eternal rest within Kur._

Kur, the land of the dead, ruled by the goddess Ereshkigal. She, along with Sinestra and another goddess, was one of the Dark Swordsman's longtime allies. As a reward for his deeds, Ereshkigal promised to grant him and his family a special place within her realm where they can rest in peace. However, due to his ties with Sinestra, the progenitor of all demons, he always had a feeling that he would be called into service again.

He did have a feeling who it was that convinced the Goddess to allow him to be summoned to this world as a Servant. That mage remained as unpredictable as always it seems. Marth wondered if the mage was laughing at the irony that this world had counterparts of people he knew from his world.

 _I would not put it past him,_ Sinestra remarked. _Anyway, stay alert. There is something lurking within this city. Something…unnatural._

 _"Understood."_ Marth perked up when he heard footsteps coming from behind. _"Gotta go. We'll talk later."_

He turned and watched as Shirou and Rin had returned from the church. Both teens were strangely quiet. While he didn't know Shirou very well, but being silent wasn't really like Rin at all. Just what happened inside?

"Are you two alright?" Marth questioned.

After a few moments, Shirou responded with, "Y-yeah. That priest is just strange. Anyway, I've decided that I will participate as a Master in this Holy Grail War." He then turned towards his Servant, his eyes fully serious. "Will you consent with me being your Master, Saber?"

"My consent is irrelevant," Saber answered automatically. "From the start, you have been my Master. Did I not swear that my body would be your blade?"

"Right, in that case. I'll be your Master." The novice mage reached out his hand towards the blonde swordswoman. "I'll be counting on you, Saber."

Saber stared the stretched hand oddly, as if it was a foreign object.

"What is it?" Shirou asked in surprise. "Are we not supposed to shake hands?"

The female Servant was silent for a moment before shaking her head. "It isn't that," she said finally. "I wasn't expecting it, so I was startled." She then reached out and grasped her Master's hand with her own before smiling. "Allow me to renew my vow. So long as the Command Spells are on your body, I shall serve as your blade.

It was honestly touching for Marth to see the counterpart of his friend having such a kindhearted Master. It almost made him forget that they would be enemies again once the night was over. He really didn't like that but his hands were tied. He just hoped that there weren't any other Servants that resembled his old comrades.

Seeing that their business here was concluded, the quartet began making their way back. As they walked, Marth noticed that Rin still hasn't spoken a word. Instead, she just kept her head low, like there was something on her mind.

"Is something wrong," the demon questioned quietly so that the others wouldn't hear him. "You're awfully quiet."

The Tohsaka mage glanced at the male Servant. She looked puzzled about something and wasn't sure if she should mention it. After a few seconds, she muttered, "I'll tell you later. Let's focus on getting home safely."

That only made Marth more concerned. Just what exactly happened in that church? He didn't have time to ponder over it as Rin suddenly came to a stop when they neared the church cemetery. This caused the others to stop as well.

"No offense, Emiya," she spoke up, "but go home on your own. I only brought you here because you weren't officially my enemy yet. But now you're a fellow Master."

Shirou simply shook his head. "I've got no intention of fighting you, Tohsaka," he said firmly.

Marth had to suppress the urge to laugh. This novice just kept finding ways to amuse him. He sincerely hoped that the redhead would be able to survive this war. Unfortunately, his Master wasn't so amused.

"Ugh, I should have known," Rin said with a groan as she held her head with one hand. "Jeez, why did I even bother bringing you here?"

"Because you're a good person," Marth spoke up. "You couldn't in good conscience leave Shirou oblivious to his situation after what you gave up to save his life." He then cracked a mischievous smirk. "It's not your fault that he's also very naïve."

"Hey!" Shirou exclaimed in protest while Rin simply giggled in amusement.

The Archer folded his arms and locked eyes with the male Master. "Am I wrong? You give me the impression that you want to protect everyone, no matter what. I know that feeling, that desire. I've seen countless people die around me. It haunts me even now." Marth's eyes suddenly narrowed, not even a trace of mischief, making the mage instinctively flinch. "Allow me to give you some advice. It is impossible to protect every single person around you. Whether you like it or not, some people will die. That is the hard truth of reality."

Shirou let out a hesitant grunt as he struggled to come up with a response. Was he really that readable? The demon's words stung him deeply. They went against everything he strived for. His goal is to be a hero of justice, a goal his father had once strived for. No matter the circumstances, he'll always strive to protect everyone.

Regaining his resolve, he readied his retort, only for his words to catch in his throat as Marth suddenly switched to his combat gear and drew his swords.

"I know you're there," he said coldly. "Save us all the trouble and come out."

Rin and Saber immediately went on-guard as two figures appeared from the top of the hill they had just descended. The first one was a beast of a man, with the dim light obscuring his features. His skin was a dark color, his black hair wild and unbrushed. His outfit consisted of only metal gauntlets and an armored skirt. He wielded a huge blade-like weapon in his right hand, fitting for his build.

The second person was vastly different. She was small, looking to be that of a child. Her attire consisted of a long purple winter jacket, a white scarf, and a purple hat. Her hair was a pale white and her eyes a deep red. She looked to be harmless, but Marth's instincts told him otherwise. For some reason, the girl reminded him of his youngest sibling.

However, he pushed the thought aside as he returned his focus on the hulking man. He was clearly a Servant, that was very clear. His Hypersense was practically screaming at him that he was in danger. He never got such a reaction from Lancer or Saber, but he quickly narrowed the reason why. That little girl…is the Master of Berserker.

* * *

Rin cursed her luck. She knew that there was the possibility that the other Servants would try to attack them while they were in the city, but she never expected to run into Berserker! While the Saber class is considered to be the strongest class of the seven, the Berserker class can be seen as the most dangerous. Unlike the other classes, the Berserker class have no trace of sanity or consciousness, trading them all for a large power boost. This is called Mad Enhancement.

Typically such a ritual is reserved for Servants that have relatively weak stats and allow them to fight against stronger opponents. However, if the Heroic Spirit already has high stats, then the Mad Enhancement makes them even more powerful. While this may seem overpowered, such a power comes at a cost. The Berserker class takes a huge toll on their Master's mana, way more than the other classes. The stronger the Berserker, the more mana they require to maintain their physical form. Another balancer is that they are very difficult to control. They aren't capable of rational thought after all. If the Master isn't careful, their own Servant would kill them instead of their enemies.

The sheer presence of this Berserker was insane. His Master must be very powerful to be able to handle him. Just who was she?

As if reading her thoughts, the mysterious girl grabbed the hem of her coat and took a bow. "Good evening, Big Brother," she said with an innocent smile, though Rin still felt on edge. "This is the second time we've met like this." She then glanced over at the Tohsaka mage. "It's nice to meet you, Rin. I am Illya. Illyasviel von Einzbern." She gave the girl a wink. "You do know the name 'Einzbern', don't you?"

Of course Rin knew that name. The Einzberns are one of the three families that created the Holy Grail Wars, alongside the Tohsakas and the Makiris. The Einzberns were the ones who created the Holy Grail and its vessel, though Rin didn't know what that vessel was. They were also very skilled at creating homunculi, artificial humans with their own magic circuits. If this girl is a homunculus, it might explain why she is able to control Berserker with such ease.

The air was extremely tense. One could probably cut it with a knife. Shirou looked completely overwhelmed by shock while both Archer and Saber warily eyed their fellow Servant.

"Incredible," Rin finally spoke up. "In terms of raw ability, that thing outclasses Saber. I'm not sure if she can take it down even with Archer's help."

Marth growled in frustration. "Maybe, and it can probably take on the other six Servants by himself too."

So brute force won't be enough to overcome this Servant. That will make this tricky. Archer has yet to show her his full power. Hopefully he may have a trump card that can take out Berserker, or at least slow it down. It was clear Illya knew she had the advantage as she was very calm despite facing a gifted mage and two enemy Servants. Her smile was still present as well.

"Archer," she muttered quietly, so that the enemy duo couldn't hear her. "Time for you to show me your class's abilities."

"Are you sure?" Marth whispered back. "This Servant shouldn't be underestimated. If it charges, I doubt you can dodge it."

Rin gritted her teeth as she tried to come up with a reply. Unfortunately, he was right. The only reason she survived her encounter with Lancer was because the Servant was merely toying with her. Berserker will do no such thing. It'll go straight for the kill as soon as it charges. Even if she used reinforcement magic on her body, the likelihood of surviving even just one attack from that hulking brute of a Servant was next to zero.

"There are three of us here," she reasoned. "At the very least, we'll be able to hold it off."

The Dark Swordsman was silent for a few moments before reluctantly nodding his head in acknowledgement. He then muttered an unknown incantation before his body briefly shimmered, though it was hard to notice because of darkness of the night. Rin felt her Servant's presence moving away, yet his body was still right next to her. She quickly realized that the Archer that was here was simply an illusion, likely to not tip off Illyasviel of their plan.

While Archer was heading towards a good vantage point to use his bow without fear of retaliation, Rin decided to address the mage beside her. Shirou looked like he was desperately trying to not give into fear. She couldn't really blame him as she was struggling to do the same thing. There's no way a novice like him can fight this Servant. He'd be an easy target. However, he did vow to work with Saber, so he did at least deserve a choice.

"Emiya," Rin said slowly, catching the redhead's attention. "It's your decision on whether to run, or stay and fight. However, just know that there's no guarantee we'll get out of this alive. If you get the chance, run away."

That didn't seem to calm the boy's nerves, but he stayed firmly in place and returned his gaze on Illya and her Servant.

"Are you done talking?" the Einzbern questioned, having been silent this whole time after introducing herself. "Can I get started?" None of the remaining trio answered her. "Okay, I'll kill you now." She said that so casually it was bone-chilling. "Get them, Berserker!"

The enemy Servant's muscles bulged up and its body began radiating a red light. It let out a primal roar that sent a blast of air towards the group. Berserker then followed with a massive leap, heading right towards them.

"Shirou, get back!" Saber exclaimed in warning as she hurried towards her Master to protect him, praying that she wouldn't be too late.

Suddenly a barrage of golden projectiles soared through the air and struck Berserker's body, knocking it out of the sky. The Servant crashed into the ground loudly, a loud boom echoing in the air. Unfortunately, the damage seemed minimal as he was already getting back on his feet. Marth's illusion also faded, as if knowing that its cover has been blown. However, right before Berserjer could charge again, another barrage of projectiles came barreling towards him. This time, he was ready and managed to cut most of them down with his massive sword, his enhanced instincts and boosted speed coming in handy.

However, some arrows managed to slip pass the weapon and struck the Heroic Spirit directly, knocking him into the grass. An explosion of energy soon followed, creating a cloud of smoke and dust. When it finally cleared, it revealed a largely unharmed, but really angry Berserker. The arrows impaled in his body simply fell off, leaving only scratches behind.

"No way," Rin said in shock. "Those barely had an effect?"

"Impressive, Rin," Illya said with a smile. "I didn't think your Servant could injure Berserker, however slight it was. But that won't save you."

Meanwhile Marth, who had settled on the roof of a tall building a few blocks away simply scoffed in annoyance. He knew right away that their opponent would be incredibly challenging, but he didn't think his arrows would only leave so little damage. He'll have to put more power into his shots than he initially expected if he and Saber were going to win.

In his hands was a large, black bow with gold accents. This is the celestial bow, Tauropolos. This was the divine weapon wielded by the huntress, Atalante, a member of the Paladins of Umbris, which Marth led himself in his first life during the War of Light and Shadow. Atalante would later be reincarnated as the sniper, Sinon, and later managed to retrieve her beloved bow to help her friends.

Though the Paladins of Umbris were gone, Marth and his friends were able to form a new group in their place. The Knights of Twilight. As their leader, he is able to summon their weapons to use in battle when he is summoned as a Servant. He is even able to unleash their full power as if they were his own. This skill is called "Highlord of Twilight".

However, because Marth was summoned as the Archer, he is unable to unleash the full power of any of his melee weapons, including his beloved swords, Lunara and Solaris. When it came to weapons like the Night Sky Blade and the Blue Rose Sword, he was able to use their Perfect Weapon Control Arts, but he was unable to unleash their Memory Release Arts, which were more powerful than the former. Not to mention that there were two weapons in his arsenal that he could never unleash their full power, even if he was the right class, and those were the weapons of the goddesses Ishtar and Ereshkigal. Those weapons were simply beyond him to fully control.

 _Maybe they are, maybe they're not,_ Sinestra said smugly as Marth readied another barrage. Thankfully the Armory of Twilight ability granted him the same skill level as the weapon's original wielder, otherwise he might end up missing all of his shots due to his inexperience with bows. _Things might not be as they seem._

 _"Gee, that's so helpful,"_ Marth thought sarcastically, making sure to keep his thoughts private from Rin. _"Mind going into more detail?"_

 _And rob you the fun of discovering that for yourself? You've faced worse than this during both your lifetimes. I'm sure you can handle this. If things really go south, you've always got your_ trump card _._

Archer simply grunted in annoyance. Despite being a goddess, Sinestra can be pretty mischievous sometimes. She would even get into petty arguments with her twin sister, the Goddess of Light, Celestia. If she was telling the truth, then he might have access to two Noble Phantasms that he wouldn't normally possess. However, one is very destructive while the other was only good within a certain range, which he was certainly not in at the moment.

For now, he'll save those two weapons if things really go south. Tauropolos certainly has its own uses, like being able to pierce anything with its arrows. This trait is certainly helpful to use against a Servant with incredibly durable skin. As for Marth's "trump card", he had to agree with the goddess. It would certainly provide a decent safety net for him and his allies, even with the restrictions of the Archer class. However, he silently hoped he won't have to use it on the second night of the Holy Grail War.

Meanwhile Berserker leaned forward before disappearing in a blur. He then reappeared right between Rin and Shirou, his gaze locked on the red-haired mage. As he slammed his sword down towards the male teen, Saber suddenly intercepted it with her own blade, having appeared in front of her Master with her own burst of unnatural speed. The immense force from the blow was enough to knock Shirou off his feet while Saber managed to hold her ground.

After locking their weapons for a few seconds, Saber managed to muster enough strength to repel Berserker's attack before readying her own. She swung her invisible sword with a spin, slamming it in her opponent's waist. The resulting impact sent the enemy Servant flying backward.

However, Berserker was largely unfazed and was able to easily gain control of his momentum to land back on his feet, creating a small crater from the impact. The two Servants held their current positions, as if waiting for the other to move. Both Rin and Shirou watched the stare down with bated breath while Illya remained her calm, confident self.

Finally, the enemy Servant let out a bloodcurdling scream, shaking the air around them, prompting Saber to brace herself. She then ran at him with an unnatural burst of speed, narrowly avoiding an overhead swing from his massive weapon. She then quickly retaliated with a flurry of slashes, only for Berserker to repel them with his weapon. Even with his sanity gone, the male Heroic Spirit still retained some rather incredible skill.

Also, despite her sword being invisible, it was clear that Berserker could somehow sense it as he was easily able to both block and evade it. As such, it made it difficult for Saber to actually land a good blow on him. It took everything she had to evade his attacks. There's no telling if her armor could withstand a full-powered blow from him and with her mana supply being as limited as it is because of Shirou's novice-level magecraft, just one attack might prove fatal.

After dodging a series of slashes from Berserker's sword, she managed to get some distance between them before rushing back in. Once she got close, she unleashed another flurry of swings, all of which were blocked, sparks shooting into the air. Berserker then brought his sword overhead for a full-powered downward slash, but that was what Saber wanted him to do. At the last second, she managed to jump up and evade the attack, causing the stone blade to hit the earth and shoot clumps of dirt everywhere. Not losing her momentum, Saber slammed her foot on the large sword, holding it in place, leaving the enemy Servant wide open.

"You've got him!" Rin cheered.

With his body wide open, Saber quickly swung her sword, aiming for his neck. However, right when her blade got close to his head, Berserker suddenly let go of his weapon and leaned back to evade. Taking advantage of his movement, continued falling down, attempting to kick Saber upward but she managed to jump out of the way in time. Berserker wasn't done though as he continued unleashing a series of high-speed kicks, each one knocking the swordswoman back even further.

 _"He's fast,"_ Saber thought to herself as she struggled to hold the Servant off. _"To think a Berserker can be this strong. I won't last much longer if I fight him here."_

_I know a place you can get some cover._

The voice spoke directly to her mind, but it wasn't her Master. Its true owner nearly cost Saber her left arm as her surprise almost left her open for one of Berserker's attacks, but she was thankfully able to avoid that fate by dodging just in time. Despite being in the grips of madness, his skill with a blade and melee fighting is second-to-none. It was honestly very impressive.

 _"Archer. How are you talking with me telepathically?"_ she questioned as she continued evading while countering, despite them being futile.

 _Telepathic communication, especially from a distance, isn't that hard for my kind,_ the Servant in black answered. _But that's not important. This guy is practically savagery incarnate. Fighting him out in the open will only let him take advantage of his superior speed and reach. If you continue battling him here, you'll die._

 _"I know,"_ she replied as Archer halted Berserker in his tracks by shooting him in the head with his arrows. _"I need to move him to a different location. You said you can find me some cover. What do you see?"_

_Well there's a graveyard and forest to your left. If you can get Berserker there, you might be able to take advantage of the tombstones and trees to block his attacks and retaliate. However, my bow will be practically useless from where I am as there's no guarantee that I won't hit you in the process. I'm heading back now so I can offer support._

_"No, stay where you are!"_ Saber argued. _"Rin ordered you to provide cover fire. If you come back, you'll only put yourself in danger. I can handle Berserker."_

As if to prove her wrong, Berserker let out another howl before swinging his sword towards her left side. Luckily, she was able to block it with her sword, but she soon found herself knocked aside. Thankfully, she was able to recover fast enough to block the follow-up attack, but she was locked in place as Berserker began to slowly overpower her.

 _I'm guessing things just got worse,_ Archer said. She could practically hear his smirk. She couldn't even muster a retort as she had to dedicate all her focus on not getting crushed by the massive blade.

"Saber!" Shirou shouted in concern.

Things weren't looking good as the stone blade was inching closer and closer to the swordswoman's neck. This couldn't be how it ends for her in this Holy Grail War. She can't die on the same night she was summoned. She had too much riding on this to lose here and now.

Suddenly Berserker tensed up as a shadowy figure appeared behind him. Before he could even react, the seemingly overpowered Servant found itself struck in the back by multiple fire arrows. Because of his surprise, the force he had put into his sword slackened, allowing Saber to break free and back away. The dark-skinned Servant turned towards its ambusher, locking eyes with none other than Marth, surprising both Rin and Shirou, the bowman standing coolly under the night sky.

"What are you doing, Archer?!" Rin shouted hastily. "You should be sniping at Berserker from afar, not here in the open."

"Sorry, Rin," Marth replied solemnly. "But I'm more of a close-quarters fighter than a sniper. That's true regardless of my class."

Rin couldn't utter a retort. There's no way Berserker will let Archer regain the distance he had before. She could only pray that her Servant has a very good reason for defying her orders.

Illyasviel let out a cheerful giggle. "You're certainly different from most Archers," she said calmly. "I doubt any of them would willingly get closer to their opponents like this. This will just make it easier for Berserker to kill you."

Marth simply smirked in response. "Oh, really? I think you'll find that I'm not so easy to kill," he replied back. He then glanced over at Berserker. "So then, you big brute, want to try fighting me instead? I bet I can put up a better resistance than Saber."

Saber felt the urge to retort at the Archer's claim as she stood where she was, her sword not lowering. She found it extremely arrogant of him to think he was a better close-quarters fighter than the members of her class. However, she then remembered just how easily the Servant in black turned the tables on her during their clash outside of Shirou's house.

Berserker let out a terrifying howl before rushing at the bowman with the force of a high-speed train. Rin and Shirou watched with bated breaths as Marth stood unmoving as the raging beast drew closer to him. Illya arrogantly called the Archer's words a bluff, thinking that he was planning to sacrifice himself so his Master can escape. However, she failed to notice that Marth's smirk did not waver even slightly.

The bloodthirsty brute was soon in attack range and readied to cut the bowman in half with his colossal sword. As the stone sword got close, a current of black wind enveloped around Marth's body before suddenly jumping over Berserker with impossible speed. As he flew through the air, he readied a fire arrow and struck his attacker in the back, creating a small explosion of flames. Berserker was thrown off-balance by the blast, but quickly regained his footing before hurrying after his fleeing opponent in an angry pursuit.

"No way," Shirou said in disbelief. "What did Archer just do? How did he do that?"

Rin had the same questions as her fellow Master, but was also wondering where her partner was heading. She turned her gaze to where Archer was running towards and saw that he was heading for the forest. She let out a gasp as she realized what his intentions were.

"Saber, go after them!" she called out. "I think I know what Archer's plan is."

Despite the brunette not being her Master, the blonde swordswoman nodded her head in acknowledgement before following the two Servants. Rin and Shirou went as well, though the latter still looked overwhelmed by what was happening.

 _"If Servants are this powerful, how the hell can they be kept in line?"_ The redhead questioned as he ran. _"Regardless, I won't let Saber fight by herself."_

* * *

Once Marth was in the confines of the forest, he dismissed his bow and summoned a rapier with a blue blade, which seemed to radiate stardust, and a golden handle. The Star Blade, Mercurius, the divine weapon wielded by his younger sister, Kisara. Immediately afterward, Berserker came charging in, his eyes practically glowing in fury.

"Zephyr," Marth muttered, causes the same current of wind to surround his body. Swordplay wasn't the only thing he was skilled with. He was also a master of wind and lightning magic. He was so skilled with them that he eventually earned a second nickname, "The Stormbringer". Zephyr is a support spell that temporarily increases the user's speed to incredible levels, but only in short bursts. It was great for evading enemy attacks and unleashing counters while the enemy was open.

Marth backflipped away from the sword before gracefully landing on the grass. He hopped sideways twice before rushing forward, his rapier glowing with blue light. He then unleashed a barrage of rapid thrusts onto Berserker's chest, easily drawing blood, spun around before doing a final lunge towards the heart. This was the rapier Sword Skill, Star Splash. The attack struck true, but it wasn't very deep, meaning it wasn't fatal. On the bright side, the rapier skill did manage to knock Berserker back, allowing Marth to recover from his post-motion delay.

 _"I'll need to be careful when I use my Sword Skills,"_ he thought as he kept evading his opponents attacks while countering with his own. _"If I use them too recklessly, they'll just leave me wide open for a counterattack."_

Unfortunately, Berserker's senses were on the same level as Marth's own, meaning it was impossible to blindside him. That made it near impossible to land any serious blows, but Marth was making an impact. However, he himself couldn't completely avoid injury as not all his dodges were perfect since he has to wait until the last minute for him to get into striking range.

The two Servants made their way to the graveyard, clashing blades all the way through. Right when the two backed away from each other, Saber suddenly appeared from behind and tried to slash at Berserker's back, only for the male Servant to repel her with his sword.

"You're late," Marth said nonchalantly. "What took you so long?"

Saber let out a groan as she deftly blocked Berserker's strikes with her sword before making a cut in his arm from one of her counterattacks. "Are you even taking this seriously?!" she refuted. "You do realize we may actually die here if we're not careful, right?"

"Oh, I'm well aware of that," Marth replied as he evaded Berserker's attacks by using the tombstones for cover before striking the Servant's legs with his rapier. "I just thought I'd have a little fun."

He then sent a telepathic message to the female Servant, telling her to use the tombstones for cover. Thanks to their speed and the darkness of the night, Berserker will have a hard time hitting them as long as they fight smartly. Saber agrees to the plan and the two began their war of attrition.

The duo tried to remain as unpredictable as possible, sometimes one would draw in the brute while the other would strike his flank. Occasionally they would even block attacks for each other to create an opening for the other to exploit. As the battle raged on, Marth would even keep switching between Mercurius, Tauropolos, and dual wielding the Night Sky Blade and the Blue Rose Sword to keep Berserker on his toes.

Archer did also try to ensnare Berserker with the Blue Rose Sword's ice, but the behemoth broke free within seconds. He was somewhat disappointed but not really surprised either. He debated on whether to use some of his attack spells to see if they have better luck at injuring Berserker, but ultimately decided to wait as he figured the other enemy Masters may be watching them and he didn't want to reveal all his tricks in one night.

However, he couldn't shake the feeling that this Heroic Spirit may force him to go all out because of their immense strength, especially if he was alone. But he isn't alone. Saber is with him and if she's just as strong as the one he knew from his world, they may have a chance at winning this fight.

Unfortunately this drawn out battle was not going in their favor as while their attacks did leave minor injuries on Berserker, the behemoth was not slowing down at all. On the other hand, both Archer and Saber were starting to get worn out. Even Heroic Spirits aren't immune to the one thing that plagues all combatants. Fatigue.

"Tch," Saber grunted as she held Berserker at sword lock. She was struggling to hold her ground as the mad warrior kept increasing the pressure on his blade. Not helping her was that her wound from Gae Bolg was starting to act up. "This is getting us nowhere."

"Agreed." Marth jumped overhead and unleashed a volley of lightning arrows right at the brute's head. He then switched to the Night Sky Blade and Blue Rose Sword to block the coming Berserker's slash with the crossblock, only for him to get sucker punched and sent crashing into a tombstone.

The Dark Swordsman collapse to one knee, completely out of breath, while using the black sword to hold himself up. Had he not experienced more brutal battles during his lifetime, he felt the impact could have rendered him unconscious. He could only watch helplessly as Saber struggled to fend off Berserker. Even he could tell that things would not end up well for her if this continued.

Finally, Saber's defense slipped, and Berserker managed to run his stone sword through her waist, sending her careening into a tombstone as well. Like Archer, she managed to not black out, but blood was pouring from her open wound. Her invisible sword was used as a crutch to keep her upper body up. She desperately tried to get back on her feet, clearly determined to win this battle…no, the Holy Grail War. Just what was driving her to push herself so hard?

"It's pointless for you to win," Illya called out from the tree line. "Berserker isn't your average Servant. He's the mightiest hero from Greece!"

Marth gasped in shock as he heard the Einzbern's statement. There's only one Heroic Spirit that fits that description. Heracles, the son of Zeus, and one of the most well-known beings from Greek and Roman mythology. That explains Berserker's immense strength and battle-hardened instincts.

Now he knows he can't afford to hold back anymore. He still couldn't risk unleashing Ishtar's bow because there lies the possibility of Saber and Rin getting caught in the crossfire. Tauropolos and the Annihilation Ray were out as well for the same reason. That left him with only one option. To use his trump card while bringing out his true swords. Heracles will learn that he's not the only one tied to the gods, only the one that Marth served is much more powerful and older than the Greek God of Thunder.

Somehow Marth managed to force himself to his feet, his two swords vanishing in the process. A dark aura of power surrounded his body, his shoulder-length hair swaying in a non-existent breeze. He began the chant to unleash his _true_ Noble Phantasm.

"Finish her off, Berserker!" Illyasviel said giddily, her Servant growling in acknowledgement and readied to deliver the killing blow.

"Wrath of—"

"Leave her alone!"

The words got caught in Marth's throat as he saw a familiar redhead rush from the trees, making a beeline towards Saber. The demon watched in horror as the boy pushed Saber out of the way, taking the attack himself. The stone sword buried deeply within Shirou's body, his blood spouting everywhere before falling limply to the ground.

"Gaaaahh!" he screamed in torment before soon falling silent from both the pain and blood loss.

Saber's eyes filled with both fear and horror as she saw her Master bleeding out in front of her. "Shirou? Shirou!"

"Emiya!" Rin shouted as she ran into the graveyard in a blind panic. Illya, on the other hand, was in complete shock by the redhead's actions.

Marth, on the other hand, clenched his teeth tight in anger. His vision turned red and he let out a terrifying howl that caught Berserker's attention. A jet-black sword with a wing-shaped guard that opened towards the pommel appeared in the Archer's right hand, the onyx gemstone in the hilt glowing in the moonlight. A gold sword with a similar design appeared in his left, only it had an emerald in the hilt instead.

He pulled the black sword back as far as he could, the blade glowing with bloodred light. He poured all his anger and fury into the sword, a fiery aura surrounding him in the process. For the first time tonight, Berserker actually looked somewhat afraid of the malice coming from the dual wielder as he took a step backward. Feeling that his Master was under threat, he rushed towards the Archer, hoping to stop him from unleashing that attack.

Rin could sense the intense power coming from her Servant. Was this his Noble Phantasm? No, it feels different from their encounter with Lancer. This is something else. Then there were those swords. The power coming from them was incredible, easily on par with Mercurius and Tauropolos. Were those the swords Archer mentioned on the school grounds?

It looks like Archer is going to charge at Berserker, but would he really be able to overpower the larger Servant with a head-on attack? However, only a cloaked figure hiding behind a tree nearby knew what was happening, his white hair peaking out from his hood.

"So you managed to retain _that_ ability as a Servant," he said with interest. "That's good."

Marth's eyes suddenly changed to yellow and thrusted his right sword forward as far as he could, letting out another bloodcurdling howl in the process. Berserker was nowhere close to him when he did so, so to both the Masters and Servants, it looked like Marth had attacked prematurely and left himself wide open.

However, Berserker quickly noticed that the light was getting closer to him at an alarming rate. Immediately sensing the danger of continuing his course, he tried jumping to the left to evade. However, his movements were too slow as the blade of light struck him right in his leg and continued stretching for ten more meters before finally dispersing into red particles. The mad warrior roared in pain, the scream intense enough to shake the very Earth, and fell to one knee. Blood was gushing out from the hole in his right thigh.

The aura around Marth then faded and his eyes returned to their usual color. However, he looked extremely unsteady on his feet. A single step could cause him to collapse on the hard earth.

"No way," Rin said in disbelief.

"How did he do that?" Illyasviel wondered, her mouth agape and eyes widened. That Archer actually managed to land a major blow on her unstoppable Servant by severing the tendon with that strange attack. She could try using her magic to heal Heracles right away, but the swordsman in black was proving to be too dangerous. He might even be able to overcome Berserker's Noble Phantasm.

With this knowledge and the shock of seeing Shirou shield his Servant with his own body, she ordered Berserker to stand down before they made their retreat into the night. The danger now gone, Rin hurried to Marth just in time to catch him in her arms before he keeled over from exhaustion. His swords, on the other hand, simply faded away.

"Archer!" she shouted in worry. "Are you okay? Archer!"

"Y-yeah," he replied as he positioned himself to lean on the brunette while having an arm free. "I'll live. How's Shirou doing?"

Rin had forgotten about the redhead and turned towards the downed Master. Saber was holding him in her arms, calling out his name and telling him to hang on. She didn't seem to care about the blood staining her battledress. There was no telling if Shirou was going to pull through.

"Don't give up just yet," a new voice spoke up. "His fight isn't quite over yet."

She immediately went on-guard while Marth summoned the Blue Rose Sword with his free left hand. A figure soon emerged from the forest and made their way over to the group. Their attire consisted of a white robe that had a hood and sleeves that draped down their arms, a black tunic underneath and pants, as well as black boots. In their right hand was a black curved staff that had a sword strapped inside, the handle pointing to the ground. The figure removed his hood, revealing his long, messy white hair that that fell to his waist, the tips multicolored, and purple eyes. By his ears seemed to be multicolored flowers. A mischievous smile crossed his lips and his presence felt almost ethereal to the mage.

Marth let out a groan. "I should have known you'd be here," he said tiredly. "Who else would give Sinestra the idea to send me to this world?"

Rin glanced at her Servant in surprise. "Archer, you know this man?"

"Indeed we do," the man said dramatically. "I have traveled across both time and space to aid my prince with the mission given to him by his true master, the Shadow Goddess, Sinestra." He took a bow. "I am Merlin. The Mage of Flowers. It's a pleasure to meet you, Rin Tohsaka."

**To be continued**

* * *

**And with that, the battle with Berserker is concluded. I sure hope Shirou manages to survive (as if I'd allow him to be killed off so quickly). Jokes aside, now I've shown off even more of Marth's abilities. I debated whether to keep his sister's name a secret, because she doesn't go by that name yet in the current canon as of yet, but given that this is a future Marth, spoilers for future details in the Dark Swordsman series are kind of inevitable, though I plan to keep them on the downlow.** **Anyway, I'll see you guys next time!**


	7. The Will to Fight

Morning had come to the city of Fuyuki, its inhabitants oblivious to the terrible battles that dwelt in the shadows of secrecy. Having made her retreat from the Servants, Saber and Archer, Illyasviel von Einzbern and her loyal Servant, Berserker, also known as the famous Greek hero, Heracles.

"Good job last night, Berserker," the pale-haired girl praised as they trotted through the forest towards the Einzberns' hidden mansion. "You definitely succeeded with putting the other Masters and Servants on edge. Together, we'll show them all what happens when you cross the Einzberns."

Heracles simply grunted in acknowledgement as he remained in his astral form. Unfortunately, because the Mad Enhancement removes a Heroic Spirit's sanity in exchange for incredible power and an unquenchable thirst for battle, it was impossible for the noble hero to hold a conversation. However, because of his history over losing control to rage or by the whims of the gods, Heracles was actually able to resist the maddening effects of his class to an extent. It was no more prominent than his battle against the black Archer.

Despite being in a class built for long range attacks, the mysterious Servant was perfectly capable of fighting the Greek hero one-on-one, and even managed to sever the tendon in one of one of his legs. Heracles's instincts told him that the Archer would be a dangerous Servant to cross, even in the exhausted state he was in.

Words were not needed to convey that to Illyasviel, who could tell what her Servant was thinking from his body movements at the graveyard. If there existed a Servant that could scare even the mighty Heracles, then caution must be advised. Though that wasn't the only reason for her sudden retreat. A big contributor was the actions of that red-haired boy, Shirou Emiya, the Master of Saber.

Not in her wildest dreams did Illya believe that that boy would willingly shield his Servant, the Servant of her deceased father, with his own body. Such a thing was outrageous to even comprehend. Heroic Spirits were summoned to fight and die in the Holy Grail War. They relied on their Masters to even maintain their physical forms. If the Master dies, then it will only be a matter of time before the Servant's own magical reserves are depleted and they return to the Throne of Heroes.

Despite the serious wounds that her big brother got from taking Berserker's sword head-on, the young Einzbern found it doubtful that he was killed. It would have been too easy, nowhere near enough to satisfy her. She recalled her grandfather mentioning that her father used a special relic to summon the same Saber during the Fourth Holy Grail War. While she didn't know what the relic was, she had a sneaky feeling that it would protect Shirou long enough for her to make her next move.

The two arrived at the mansion with no issue. The building was quite large with many floors and having a regal design. This was the first base for the Einzberns during the last Holy Grail War and it was clear why. It was located in the middle of a dense forest, meaning there was no worry of any potential witnesses from the locals, and it was protected by many wards. It would be quite difficult for the other Servants to breach this place.

"Go on and rest up," Illyasviel requested as she entered her home. "I managed to heal the wound Archer inflicted, but you should take it easy for now, just in case. I can't have you dying too soon after all."

Berserker let out another grunt and trotted off to his room to recuperate.

Once she could no longer feel his immediate presence, Illyasviel let out a deep sigh. It was incredibly taxing on her body for maintaining a Berserker as strong as Heracles. Just that one bout with Saber and Archer practically guzzled a lot of her mana, the Mad Enhancement in particular taking quite a toll on her. At least it wasn't as painful as it used to be when they were "training" back in the snowy winterland of the Einzbern territory.

Unlike the other Masters, the Einzberns were to summon her Servant a full two months in advance. Such a feat was made possible thanks to some materials of the Greater Grail, which the family was somehow able to collect. However, because of the premature summoning, there was no Holy Grail to help keep the Heroic Spirit anchored to the modern world. As such, Illyasviel had to use her own magic circuits to generate enough magical energy to make up the gap, at the cost of draining her own lifeforce.

Obviously such a thing would be extremely painful to the girl whose body did not match her true age. The immense pain would leave her in a fit of screams and barely able to muster insults towards the being causing her pain. It didn't take long for the training to begin. Well…training was too nice of a word to use. It was more like torture.

Illyasviel and Berserker were sent into the forest, where they constantly plagued by wolves, possessed corpses, and even failed homunculi. Illya was forced to have her Servant kill them all to protect herself, making her pain even worse. Once she was able to get used to controlling him, she took the Heroic Spirit's sanity away using his class skill, the Mad Enhancement, as a form of revenge for her suffering. Despite that, she couldn't deny that she was fond of the Greek hero.

Wanting to freshen up from her little adventure across Fuyuki, Illya hurried off to her bathroom. Waiting for her were her two maids, Sella and Leysritt. Just like her, they were homunculi and part of the Einzbern family, as such they shared the same hair and eye color, however both the maids were physically older despite only being two years old.

"I cannot approve of this," Sella objected as Illya discarded her clothing and dumped them in an ornate wooden chest. "You could have defeated them both, yet you allowed them to escape."

Illya simply grunted after she finished shedding the rest of her clothing. "Killing them right away wouldn't be any fun," she reasoned. "They still don't know about Berserker's Noble Phantasm, so nothing was lost from that encounter. If anything, we were the ones who gained something. You both saw that Archer in action. A Servant capable of wielding multiple weapons and skilled in both ranged and close combat. He was even able to damage Berserker's leg."

"That's exactly my point!" Sella argued. "That Servant is clearly dangerous to even the mighty Heracles. You should have healed Berserker and pressed the attack to finish him off. By not doing so, you may have invited a serious threat to our doorstep."

Illya remained silent as she waded in the warm bathwater. "You worry too much, Sella," she said calmly. "Archer may be an anomaly to his class, but there's no way even he can overcome Berserker's Noble Phantasm. If anything, he'll make for some interesting prey."

The maids were silent after that. As the small homunculus floated in her bathtub, she pondered over what had occurred in that graveyard. Yes, the Servant in black was a bigger threat than she expected, but it didn't matter. She had one of the most powerful Servants at her command. Whoever that Archer is, even he will not be able to protect Shirou Emiya from her revenge. She had to make the boy suffer…to suffer in the place of the man who abandoned her and betrayed her family. Her father…Kiritsugu Emiya.

* * *

It was a full moon at the Emiya household. A young Shirou and his adopted father, Kiritsugu were sitting on the wooden porch, dressed in matching kimonos. The older magus looked very weary, almost that something was sapping his very life essence from him. Shirou had noticed this even from the very beginning when the raven-haired man visited him on that fateful day at the hospital. It was a constant fear that his beloved father would eventually give up and close his eyes, never opening them again.

"When I was little," Kiritsugu spoke up as he admired the dazzling night sky, "I dreamed about becoming a hero of justice."

"What do you mean 'used to'?" Shirou questioned, almost in a demanding way. "Are you saying you gave up? Why would you do that?"

The older magus let out a heavy sigh. "Well, it's hard to explain." After a moment of silence, he continued. "Heroes don't last long. The older you get, the harder it gets to be one. I only wish I could have come to that realization sooner."

"I see." Shirou looked away from his father and lifted his eyes towards the pale white moon hovering in the sky. "Then I guess it probably won't happen for you then."

"No," Kiritsugu mused in agreement. "It probably won't."

"But," the redhead continued, "just because it might be too late for you to become a hero, that doesn't mean that I can't be one. Since it's too late for you, I'll just become a hero of justice in your place. I'm sure I've got plenty of time to become one." He raised his arms in excitement as a cool breeze brushed past them. "Just leave it to me! I'll make it happen no matter what."

Shirou returned his gaze towards his father, his eyes locking with the older man's. There was a sense of weariness and affection contained within the raven-haired man's eyes, but also pride and maybe even hope.

An honest smile formed on Kiritsugu's face. "Thank you," he said softly. His eyes then closed and let out one final and slow breath. "I can rest now."

And with that, the man once feared as the Mage Killer breathed his last on that very night, leaving his adopted son all alone.

* * *

Shirou suddenly awoke with a jolt. The first thing he noticed that his body was hurting everywhere. He looked down at himself and saw that his lower torso and left shoulder were completely wrapped in bandages. He didn't know why they were there but the sore pain that continued to ache across his body told him that they were needed.

He then examined his surroundings and saw that he was back in his room, warm sunlight creeping through his window. How did he get here? The last he remembered was walking back home with Saber, Tohsaka and Archer.

Seeing that he wouldn't get any answers sitting here, he slowly got up and began dressing himself. However, as he was brushing his teeth, he noticed that some blood was mixed in with the water. It couldn't have come from his gums. He took care of his teeth too well for that to happen.

 _"What all happened last night?"_ Shirou wondered as he exited the bathroom and made his way to the living room.

He opened the hallway door to the living room, only to see Rin Tohsaka kneeling at the table, helping herself to a cup of tea. She wasn't dressed in her school uniform and was instead wearing a long-sleeved red blouse with a white cross and a black skirt. Her hair was still in its usual style, black bows tied into her raven hair.

"Well, good morning," Rin said casually. "I hope you don't mind that I let myself in."

"W-what are _you_ doing here?!" he cried out in shock.

This had to be a dream or something. There's no way Rin Tohsaka, the school idol, would be sitting in his living room, drinking his tea.

"You don't have any decent tea in this whole house," the female mage replied, completely ignoring his question. "If you insist on using tea bags, at least use the triangular ones."

"Uh, Tohsaka, why are you—"

"Also," Rin so rudely interrupted. "You owe me and Archer some gratitude. Your little stunt last night made it difficult to move you, but luckily Archer had a way of bringing both you and Saber back here safely."

"Stunt? What are you…?" Then it hit him. The terrifying battle against Berserker. Seeing the skilled Saber down on her knees, her armor all bloody. Him rushing out to save her, only to get hit instead. He could also recall a strange metallic noise, almost like a jet engine and a terrifying howl.

"We were attacked by that monster of a Servant," Shirou realized, his skin crawling from the terror. "But how am I still alive? Did you save me again?"

"Nope," Rin answered simply. "You're wounds simply healed on their own. From my observations, Saber seems to be able to regenerate on her own. As her Master, you might have somehow tapped into that power, though that should be impossible since Servants can't transfer magical power to their Masters. However, you aren't exactly an ordinary Master to begin with."

"What the heck does that mean?" the redhead questioned in defense.

"Well for starters, Masters don't use their own bodies to protect their Servants. Such a thing is foolhardy. If you had died, then Saber would have disappeared too." She began toying with her tea bag as Shirou helped himself to some tea. He needed something to distract him. "So, Emiya, what's your plan of attack?"

Shirou was surprised by the sudden question but was quick to come up with an answer. "I don't know, but I can't allow a repeat of ten years ago. All this Holy Grail crap means nothing to me."

Rin grunted in annoyance. "I knew you'd say that," she said, sounding displeased. "If Saber hears that she'll kill you. You don't seriously think that Heroic Spirits fight as Servants out of kindness, do you?"

"What are you talking about?"

"You need to wake up. The Masters aren't the only ones who get their wishes granted if they win the Holy Grail War," Rin explained intently. "The Servants can have their wishes granted as well. It's the only reason most of them became Heroic Spirits. Why else would they allow themselves to become familiars? It's because they each have something they want the Grail to grant them."

"So Saber's only doing this because she wants the Grail? What about Archer? Is it the same for him?"

"Probably. I never asked him about his wish. Whatever it is, though, I'm glad I managed to summon him. While he may be abnormal for a Servant of the Archer class, his skills and abilities are undeniable. Against all odds, he was able to hold his own against Berserker in close combat and even injured him. That shouldn't have been possible given his class's focus being in long range attacks."

"I think you'll find my prince to be quite a unique Servant," a new voice spoke up.

A man wearing a white robe that had a hood and sleeves that draped down their arms, a black tunic underneath and pants, as well as black boots, suddenly entered the room. He had long messy white hair that fell to his waist, the tips multicolored, and wore strange flowers as earrings. His purple eyes fell to the redhead before he smiled. He looked familiar to Shirou, but he couldn't remember why.

"Welcome back to the land of the living, Shirou Emiya," the man said rather dramatically. "I'd say your return was a surprise, but that would be a lie. Nothing can ever escape my sight."

Rightfully confused, Shirou slowly said, "Uh, who are you and why are you in my house?"

Rin let out an irritated groan. She clearly must be annoyed by the man's antics during the remainder of last night.

"That's Merlin," she said with a groan. "Supposedly he's a friend of Archer's. He showed up right after Illyasviel and Berserker retreated."

Merlin smiled mischievously and puffed out his chest. "Oh I'm more than his friend," he said with pride. "I happen to be the advisor to the royal family of Eternus, the land of the Goddess of Shadows, Sinestra. As such, I happen to be on very good terms with Archer, whose identity I won't disclose without his express permission."

So Archer is royalty? Why was that not surprising to Shirou? The way the Servant in black held himself and his very presence seemed regal, though he did seem to have some mischievous tendencies if yesterday had anything to go by. In fact, it partially reminded him of Saber.

"Wait, now I remember you," Shirou realized, his eyes widening. "You asked me for directions into the city yesterday after classes ended. So Archer was that friend you were meeting up with?"

"Indeed," Merlin confirmed as he took a seat next to the redhead. "You have no idea how hard it was to convince Sinestra to let her favorite champion participate in this Holy Grail War. He couldn't have been summoned as a Servant without her express consent."

Now Rin looked surprised. "Wait, Archer's not a part of the Throne of Heroes?"

"Nope," the Mage of Flowers replied. "Archer's got no connection to the Throne of Heroes or the Holy Grail. His summoning is only made possible through his true master, Goddess Sinestra. I'm sure that you've already begun hearing her voice thanks to your pact with Archer."

Shirou looked at the Tohsaka mage in confusion, hoping to find some answers. Unfortunately, the raven-haired girl looked rather shocked by Merlin's statement.

"Wait, you know that?" Rin questioned in disbelief.

"Of course, I do. The only way I could convince Sinestra for letting Archer be summoned to this world as a Servant, I had to find him a Master that was worthy of him. Rin Tohsaka, not only are you similar to one of Archer's Twilight Knights, your wavelength is near identical to two goddesses that he's friends with. He couldn't have a more perfect Master."

Rin was somewhat confused, but she found herself smiling with pride. "Thank you, I guess," she replied. "I'm guessing that you're the reason Archer's pendant ended up in my room."

"Correct," Merlin confirmed. "However, I was hoping that you'd be able to summon him in his strongest class, a forbidden class that shouldn't be. I specifically tuned your catalyst to make such a feat possible. Unfortunately, even my clairvoyance gets hazy whenever it comes to seeing his future. He should not have been summoned as an Archer, a class he doesn't even qualify."

The Tohsaka mage looked ready to pull her hair out. Her face was so red from anger. "Are you kidding me?! I could've had an even stronger Servant if I had read the time correctly before I summoned him?!" she bellowed, her voice almost shaking the very air.

"Afraid so. That shouldn't be too much of an issue. Even if he's in the wrong class, my prince is still a force to be reckoned with. Besides, thanks to you, Archer should have access to two Noble Phantasms he wouldn't normally possess, even if he was in his strongest class."

That seemed to satisfy the ravenette somewhat, although she still looked rather peeved. The room grew quiet until Shirou finally remembered something important.

"Wait, is Saber okay?" he asked frantically. "She lost a lot blood last night."

"She's fine, Emiya," Rin said dismissively. "Servants may seem alive, but they're not. When they die, they just go back to where they came from."

Shirou clenched his teeth in frustration. "That doesn't give them license to kill each other!"

"Listen, Emiya," Rin tried to reason. "If you let the other Masters run unchecked, innocent people are gonna die. Servants use magical energy, otherwise known as mana, as fuel. The more mana they gain, the closer they get to the strength they had when they were alive."

"I don't get what you're saying."

Merlin simply shook his head. "Good grief. It seems we have to spell it out for you," the Mage of Flowers chided. "She's saying that Servants are spiritual beings. Because of that, they are able to consume a person's soul as a sort of food. There are some Masters who force their Servants to feed off of innocent people just to make the Servant stronger."

Shirou's eyes filled with horror. There's no way that can be true. There's no way someone like Saber would feed off of an innocent person just to increase her strength.

As if reading his mind, Merlin added, "Relax, most Servants wouldn't dare attack humans just to feed off their mana as they have morals against such behavior. If you wanted Saber to do that, you'd have to use a Command Seal to force her to comply. So, still want to remain neutral in the Holy Grail War?"

Shirou didn't have an answer for the male magus. He just couldn't believe it. Are there seriously Masters who would break all kinds of morals just to get their hands on the Holy Grail, especially with the church watching? It just seemed so surreal to the novice that he struggled to form a coherent thought.

Suddenly a loud metallic sound filled the air, almost like an engine. It seemed to be coming from outside. Rin made a passing comment that _they_ were back before standing up and heading towards the front of the Emiya household. Merlin soon followed her. Understandably confused, Shirou hurried after them, though his body did protest against the sudden movement.

The first thing he noticed as soon as he got on the front porch was a large motorcycle parked in his yard. It was decked out in metallic black armor, had large black tires and even exhaust pipes near the rear tire. Sitting at the helm was none other than Archer, once more in his civilian clothes. Right behind him was a lone female dressed in a white button-down winter coat, a pale blue scarf, a matching blue skirt, black stockings and brown boots. Her face was largely concealed by a black helmet with a shaded visor.

"What'd I tell you?" Archer said, a cocky smile plastered on his face. "I told you this thing is fast."

"That is impressive," the girl replied, her voice sounding all too familiar. She reached for her helmet and removed it with both hands, revealing her green eyes and blonde hair that was tied in a bun. "But you ran several red lights and were definitely going above the speed limit. You're lucky you didn't hit anyone."

"Oh please. It's still early in the morning and the weekend," the male Servant passed off as the two of them climbed off the vehicle. "There aren't that many people that are out right now. If we so much as gotten as being pulled over by a cop, well, I can be pretty persuasive with avoiding a speeding ticket."

Saber simply rolled her eyes at that. "You're unbelievable, Archer," she said in annoyance. "I guess I should have expected as much from the prince of demons." She turned her gaze at the observing trio and gasped at what she saw. "Shirou? You're awake."

"Y-yeah," the novice Master replied as his Servant approached him and gave him a look over. "But why were you hanging with Archer? I thought you didn't like him."

The blonde swordswoman narrowed her eyes for a moment before relaxing with a deep breath. "Archer may get on my nerves at times, but he definitely has earned my respect with his fighting prowess," she explained. "That and he helped us get back to your home as quickly as possible to treat your wounds."

Shirou turned his gaze towards the Black Archer, who was casually leaned against his motorcycle, arms folded across his chest. "Tohsaka mentioned that you helped me and Saber get us back to safety," he said slowly. "I guess I owe you my thanks."

The raven-haired Servant simply chuckled at that. "Don't mention it. It was the least I could do for an old friend." He then turned his gaze at the bike. "This is how I got you and Saber back here so quickly. I should really thank Lady Sinestra for allowing me to use my old equipment while I'm here. This is my bike, Felstorm, and as you can tell, it's not your average motorcycle."

No kidding. The materials to construct such a beast looked completely foreign to the redhead. There was nothing on it that gave even a clue on which company manufactured it. Then there was the fact that the bike seemed to be radiating some kind of energy. Mana.

"Anyway," Archer suddenly locked eyes with Saber, "we still good with our agreement?"

The female Servant nodded in confirmation. "Yes, I won't reveal your True Name to Shirou without your permission if you don't reveal mine to Rin without my consent. I must say, I never expected that I'd make such terms with a fellow Servant."

"Wait, what?!" Shirou and Rin shouted in surprise. Merlin, on the other hand, simply burst out in laughter at the teens' reaction.

Once the Masters had calmed down, Archer explained that he knew Saber's True Name because she has a counterpart back in his world, who happened to be a close friend of his. The same was also true of Lancer, which is why the demon prince was able to do so well against the spearman during their battle at the school. He then clarified that he might not be able to identify the other Servants as they may not have counterparts in his world, one such example was Berserker, who was none other than the mighty Heracles, so it wouldn't be a good idea to rely on him for such a role.

"Speaking of which," Archer suddenly remembered. He turned his gaze towards his Master. "Hey, Rin, did you tell Shirou already?"

That got the redhead curious. Was there something else Tohsaka wanted to tell him. He looked in the girl's direction, who looked ready to slap herself.

"Oh, yeah, I nearly forgot." Rin spun towards her fellow Master, her hair ruffling from the sudden movement. "Me, Merlin, Archer and Saber were discussing this while you slept. Emiya, would you mind if we continued our truce?"

"Yeah, but why? You were pretty determined to cut ties with me last night. Why the sudden change?"

It was Saber that spoke up next. "Berserker," the swordswoman said grimly. The very mention of that behemoth's name made the hairs on Shirou's stick up. "Archer managed to drive him away with that strange attack of his." She turned towards the other Servant. "What did you call it again? Imagination attack?"

"Incarnate attack," Marth clarified. "Basically I use a mental image to overwrite reality to achieve something impossible. That's bit of an oversimplification but it's the best I can do without dragging this out. I can only use Incarnation to extend the range of my Sword Skills and amplify their power by a bit. They're best used as a last resort but I kinda snapped during the fight with Berserker, so I unleashed an Incarnate Vorpal Strike by accident."

"Archer said that even with that little slip-up, it'll be hard for the other Servants to identify him," Rin took over. "However, with how dangerous Berserker has shown himself. We thought it might be best if the five of us worked together until we can defeat him."

That did make sense, even to a novice mage like himself. Heracles was capable of fighting two powerful Servants all alone, even when the terrain was against him. His sheer presence practically screamed fury and power. If Berserker was able to be more than a match for Saber and Archer when they were working together, what hope would they have if they fought the behemoth alone? They got lucky last time. There was no telling if that would happen again.

After a few moments of thinking, Shirou had his answer. "Okay, I'm willing to work with you Tohsaka. But I don't want to kill anyone."

As expected, the female magus let out a groan. "Are you kidding me?" she said in frustration. "You do realize that this is a battle to the death, right? It's kill or be killed."

"I know, but I still don't want to kill anyone. There has to be another way."

Rin looked ready to utter another retort, but fell silent when her Servant suddenly placed his hand on her shoulder.

"Let it go, Rin," Marth said firmly. The female Master fell silent, words seeming to have failed her. As her gaze fell to the wooden porch, her Servant locked eyes with the redhead. "Shirou, I admire your distaste for violence, but the other Masters and Servants won't share that sentiment. I know what it's like to be forced into a battle you want no part of, I really do. But you must be willing to fight. That's what a hero of justice should do, right?"

Shirou's eyes widened in shock as he let out a gasp. "How did you know that?"

"You talk in your sleep," the Dark Swordsman passed off. "Look, I don't know your past or why you seem so fixed on wanting to save everyone. How about this? We only go after Berserker and the other Servants, not their Masters. We Servants are technically dead already so there's no harm in us losing our lives in this war. If the other Masters lose their Servants, then they can't compete in the Holy Grail War anymore, so we don't have to kill them."

"But Kirei said that killing a Servant was hard even for another Servant," Shirou argued. "What makes you so sure that you and Saber can pull that off?"

A confidant smirk appeared on the demon's face. He let out a chuckle, the sounds of dry thunder booming in sync. "Simple," Marth replied. "Even with her handicap with you as her Master, Saber is still a powerful Servant in her own right. I'm one of the most powerful demons in my world. Even with my class restrictions, I can still give most of the other Servants a run for their money. Plus I get a great amount of mana from my Master, whose an gifted mage. Not to mention we have the added bonus of having one of the most powerful mages with us, Merlin. He can see into the immediate future, but don't count on him telling you what he sees. He prefers to watch us figure things out on our own than telling us what we need to do."

The Mage of Flowers gave his prince an innocent smile. "You wound me, my lord," he said in exasperation. "If I told you everything that would happen and what to do, your skills would rust and you'd never think for yourself."

"Too true," Marth agreed. "Even so, you're still a powerful mage and a good ally to have. Can we count on you for support?"

"Of course. That's why I'm here after all, just don't expect me to do any heavy lifting during our battles."

That actually got a chuckle out of Shirou. While he didn't like the idea of killing the Servants as well, especially the ones who may be indirect friends with Archer, their deaths would ensure that the Grail wouldn't fall into the wrong hands. Plus, this way he can avoid fighting against Tohsaka. Also, it didn't hurt that Archer seemed to have a way of drawing people to his side. It's no wonder that he's a prince. It would be interesting to learn more about the Servant in black.

Steeling his resolve, Shirou nodded his head. "Sure, I can roll with that. What about you, Tohsaka?"

Rin looked a little uncomfortable for being put on the spot like that, but she really couldn't disagree with her Servant's case either. She herself didn't have a wish for the Holy Grail and Marth didn't seem to have any interest to pursue it as he didn't seem to want to fight Saber to the death, though whether the female Servant shared in the sentiment was neither here nor there. It would certainly be a challenging road, but if last night was any indication, the Stormbringer might be able to make it possible.

Seeing no way out, she let out a sigh in defeat. "Okay, fine," she huffed. "But we're using Emiya's house as our base. My house is too expensive to replace if we get attacked there."

The others chuckled in amusement and agreed to the female Master's terms. She and Archer then climbed onto the latter's bike to return to the Tohsaka household. If they were going to use Shirou's house as a base, then Rin wanted to make sure she had a change of clothes and supplies to better protect herself. Merlin stayed behind as he wanted to help keep an eye out for any potential attacks by the other Masters. Marth's familiar, who Shirou learned is named Shade, also stayed to act as extra surveillance.

After watching the duo drive off, Merlin went into the house to find something to eat. Apparently he hasn't had any food since he arrived in Fuyuki. Shirou was about to go join him and prepare breakfast, when Saber suddenly stopped him by grabbing his arm.

"Listen Shirou," she said intently, her eyes deadly serious. "I'm glad that you managed to recover from your injuries, but I want you to know that I don't want you to do that again. Combat is my specialty, not yours. You very well could have died last night. There's no need to protect me. I'd much rather you focus on the areas you excel in, off the battlefield."

Shirou's face flashed with anger. Even though he knew how stupid it was to take Berserker's attack instead, if it happened again, then he wouldn't change a thing. His dream is to be a hero of justice, the dream his father was unable to achieve. He couldn't become a hero if he just ran at the first sign of danger.

"So it's wrong for me to try to help someone in danger?" he accused. Saber's eyes widened in surprise, clearly not expecting that reply. Dismissing his anger, Shirou added, "Let's move onto something else. Are you hungry? If so, I can make us some breakfast."

"Very well," Saber replied. "I don't get much mana from consuming human food, but as long as I reserve the mana I have and sleep enough, I should be able to get by."

The duo then returned to the house, where they were met by an impatient Merlin who also wanted Shirou to cook something. Apparently the Mage of Flowers was lucky to even make toast properly so he'd rather eat something that wouldn't give himself indigestion. Saber rolled her eyes at that, muttering something about the magus being the same regardless of which world he's from, though Shirou didn't quite catch it all to make any sense of it.

* * *

"Why did you do that, Archer?" Rin questioned as she clung to the Servant, her hair bellowing in the rushing wind as they zoomed across the city. "You know that Emiya's ideology will get him killed. Why did you appeal to that?"

"So we can keep an eye on him," Marth answered. "I won't deny that Shirou is certainly naïve and definitely needs a wake-up call. However, I've been in situations like his, ones where it's better to let a person die than try to save them."

"What did you do in those situations?"

"Isn't it obvious? I tried to save them anyway. There's no way I could live with myself if I just sat back and did nothing when someone was in danger. I've seen way too many deaths than a person should ever see, some of them even being important to me. I don't want anyone else to go through what I went through. If I can make sure Shirou can survive this war, then that's fine by me."

"Is that your wish then?" Rin suddenly asked. "To end people's suffering?"

"Heh," Marth chuckled out. "You wish. I'm not naïve enough to think of a wish like that. I don't really have a wish. If I changed even one thing about my past, then I change everything. I don't want to lose that. It was because of what happened in my past that made me who I am and gave me the friends and family I have. I wouldn't trade that for anything."

So he really doesn't want the Holy Grail. In a way, he was just like her in this war. He doesn't have an actual reason to fight in this war. Marth only agreed to fight because that's what Rin wanted to do. They truly made quite the pair.

She found herself smiling before holding the male Servant a little tighter than before. Marth did notice this but made no comment on it. Instead he let girl hold him, sharing in his warmth. When he came to a stoplight, he chose to obey the traffic laws and slow down. Once he came to a stop at the light, his Hypersense went off. Someone was watching them.

The Dark Swordsman took a quick glance at the immediate area but saw no one else in the vicinity. That didn't put him at ease. This presence felt…familiar to him and not in a good way. _He_ couldn't have been summoned here as well, could he?

Marth's thoughts were interrupted when the light turned green, prompting him to continue on his way towards the Tohsaka residence. However, watching him from a nearby rooftop was a lone figure dressed in black armor, his long silver hair brushing against the winter breeze.

"Well, well," the man mused as he watched the armored motorcycle with his bloodred eyes. "So you're here as well, Marth? We truly are bound by fate it seems. I do hope you can still give me a good battle. We wouldn't want to disappoint our true masters after all."

A magic circle appeared underneath his boots and he warped away to an unknown location. It was almost like he was never there.

**To be continued**

* * *

**Sorry if this felt a little too exposition heavy, but it just kinda happened, especially when it came to the topic about Marth's appearance (also to clarify that he can't identify all the Servants, in terms of the other six, he's only able to identify Artoria, Cu Chulainn and one other Servant (hint it's one that already made an appearance in a previous chapter)). Sad part is, I'm not entirely done with this day since there's the explanation on Noble Phantasms and whatever else happens. This just felt like a good stopping point. I'm really looking forward to Marth's future interactions with the other Servants, mainly Lancer and the other Servant that he knows. Anyway, I'll see you guys next time!**


End file.
